Real-time information technology environments

ABSTRACT

Real-time data of business applications of an Information Technology environment is monitored to obtain information to be used in managing the environment. A business application includes processing collectively performed by a plurality of components of the environment. A component includes one or more resources, and therefore, in one example, the real-time data being monitored is associated with those resources.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates, in general, to managing customer environments toprovide support for business resiliency, and in particular, tomonitoring aspects of the environment to facilitate management thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Today, customers attempt to manually manage and align their availabilitymanagement with their information technology (IT) infrastructure.Changes in either business needs or the underlying infrastructure areoften not captured in a timely manner and require considerable rework,leading to an inflexible environment.

Often high availability solutions and disaster recovery technologies arehandled via a number of disparate point products that target specificscopes of failure, platforms or applications. Integrating thesesolutions into an end-to-end solution is a complex task left to thecustomer, with results being either proprietary and very specific, orunsuccessful.

Customers do not have the tools and infrastructure in place to customizetheir availability management infrastructure to respond to failures in away that allows for a more graceful degradation of their environments.As a result, more drastic and costly actions may be taken (such as asite switch) when other options (such as disabling a set of applicationsor users) could have been offered, depending on business needs.

Coordination across availability management and other systems managementdisciplines is either nonexistent or accomplished via non-reusable,proprietary, custom technology.

There is little predictability as to whether the desired recoveryobjective will be achieved, prior to time of failure. There are onlymanual, labor intensive techniques to connect recovery actions with thebusiness impact of failures and degradations.

Any change in the underlying application, technologies, businessrecovery objectives, resources or their interrelationships require amanual assessment of impact to the hand-crafted recovery scheme.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Based on the foregoing, a need exists for a capability that facilitatesmanagement of an IT environment. In particular, a need exists for acapability that enables real-time monitoring of business applications ofthe environment and use of the information obtained from monitoring tomanage one or more aspects of the environment.

The shortcomings of the prior art are overcome and additional advantagesare provided through the provision of a computer-implemented method tofacilitate management of an Information Technology (IT) environment. Themethod includes, for instance, obtaining a definition of a businessapplication that is to be monitored, the business application includingprocessing collectively performed by a plurality of resources of the ITenvironment; and monitoring real-time data associated with one or moreresources of the business application to provide information to be usedin managing the IT environment.

Computer program products and systems relating to one or more aspects ofthe present invention are also described and claimed herein.

Additional features and advantages are realized through the techniquesof the present invention. Other embodiments and aspects of the inventionare described in detail herein and are considered a part of the claimedinvention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

One or more aspects of the present invention are particularly pointedout and distinctly claimed as examples in the claims at the conclusionof the specification. The foregoing and other objects, features, andadvantages of the invention are apparent from the following detaileddescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 depicts one embodiment of a processing environment to incorporateand use one or more aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 2 depicts another embodiment of a processing environment toincorporate and use one or more aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 3 depicts yet a further embodiment of a processing environment toincorporate and use one or more aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 4 depicts one embodiment of a Business Resilience System used inaccordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 5A depicts one example of a screen display of a business resilienceperspective, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 5B depicts one example of a screen display of a Recovery Segment,in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 6A depicts one example of a notification view indicating aplurality of notifications, in accordance with an aspect of the presentinvention;

FIG. 6B depicts one example of a notification message sent to a user, inaccordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 7 depicts one example of a Recovery Segment of the BusinessResilience System of FIG. 4, in accordance with an aspect of the presentinvention;

FIG. 8A depicts examples of key Recovery Time Objective properties for aparticular resource, in accordance with an aspect of the presentinvention;

FIG. 8B depicts one example in which Recovery Time Objective propertiescollectively form an observation of a Pattern System Environment, inaccordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 9 depicts one example of a conceptual view of a Recovery Segment,in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 10 depicts one embodiment of the logic to activate observationmode, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIGS. 11A-11B depict one embodiment of the logic to prepare for RSmonitoring, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 12 depicts one embodiment of the logic to initiate periodic pollobservation, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIGS. 13A-13G depict one embodiment of the logic to respond to periodicpoll observation, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIGS. 14A-14C depict one embodiment of the logic associated withtopology lifecycle change notification, in accordance with an aspect ofthe present invention;

FIG. 15 depicts one embodiment of the logic to change a periodic pokeinterval, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 16 depicts one embodiment of the logic to deactivate observationmode, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 17 depicts one embodiment of the logic associated with RSmonitoring of resources, in accordance with an aspect of the presentinvention;

FIGS. 18A-18B depict one embodiment of the logic for RS monitoringnotification, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 19 depicts one embodiment of the logic to deactivate monitoring, inaccordance with an aspect of the present invention; and

FIG. 20 depicts one embodiment of a computer program productincorporating one or more aspects of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In managing a customer's environment, such as its business environment,there is a set of requirements unaddressed by existing technology, whichcauses unpredictable down time, large impact failures and recoveries,and significant extra labor cost, with resulting loss of businessrevenue. These requirements include, for instance:

-   -   1. Ensuring that there is a consistent recovery scheme across        the environment, linked to the business application, across the        different types of resources; not a different methodology        performed by platform silo. The recovery is to match the scope        of the business application, not limited in scope to a single        platform. The recovery is to be end-to-end and allow for        interaction across multiple vendor products. In one example, a        business application is defined as a process that is supported        by IT services. It is supportive of the products and/or services        created by a customer. It can be of fine granularity (e.g., a        specific service/product provided) or of coarse granularity        (e.g., a group of services/products provided).    -   2. Ability to group together mixed resource types (servers,        storage, applications, subsystems, network, etc.) into logical        groupings aligned with business processes requirements for        availability.    -   3. Ability to share resources across logical groups of        resources;

ability to nest these logical group definitions, with specifications forgoal policy accepted and implemented at each level.

-   -   4. Pre-specified recommendations for resource groupings, with        customization possible, and pattern matching customer        configuration with vendor or customer provided        groupings/relationships—to avoid requiring customers to start        from scratch for definitions.

5. Ability to group together redundant resources with functionalequivalence—use during validation when customer has less redundancy thanrequired to meet the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) goal; in recovery toselect an alternate resource for one that has failed.

-   -   6. Ability to configure the definition of what constitutes        available, degraded, or unavailable based on customer's own        sensitivity for a given grouping of resources, and business        needs, and further aggregate the state across various resources        to produce an overall state for the business application. The        state is to be assessed real time, based on what is actually        occurring in the system at the time, rather than fixed        definitions. In some cases, a performance slowdown might flag a        degraded environment, and in other cases, a failure may be        necessary before flagging a degraded or unavailable environment.        The definitions of available, degraded and unavailable are to be        consumed by an availability system that evaluates them in the        context of a policy, and then determines appropriate action,        including possibly launching recovery automatically.    -   7. Ability to relate the redundancy capability of relevant        resources to the availability status of a business application.    -   8. Allow customers to configure when recovery actions can be        delegated to lower level resources, particularly since resource        sharing is becoming more relevant in many customer environments.    -   9. Include customer or vendor best practices for availability as        prespecified workflows, expressed in a standards based manner,        that can be customized.    -   10. Ability to specify quantitative business goals for the        recovery of logical groupings of resources, effecting both how        the resources are pre-configured for recovery, as well as        recovered during errors. One such quantitative goal is Recovery        Time Objective (RTO). As part of the specification of        quantitative business goals, to be able to include time bias of        applications, and facilitate the encoding of appropriate        regulatory requirements for handling of certain workloads during        changing business cycles in selected businesses, such as        financial services.    -   11. Decomposition of the overall quantified RTO goal to nested        logical groups; processing for shared groups having different        goals.    -   12. Ability to configure redundancy groupings and co-location        requirements with resources from other vendors, using a        representation for resources (which may be, for example,        standards based), with ability to clearly identify the vendor as        part of the resource definition.    -   13. Ability to use customer's own historical system measures to        automatically generate various system environments, then use        these system environments when specifying quantitative recovery        goals (since recovery time achievability and requirements are        not consistent across time of day, business cycle, etc.). The        function is to be able to incorporate historical information        from dependent resources, as part of the automatic generation of        system environments.    -   14. Specification of statistical thresholds for acceptability of        using historical information; customer specification directly of        expected operation times and directive to use customer specified        values.    -   15. Environments are matched to IT operations and time of day,        with automatic processing under a new system environment at time        boundaries—no automatic internal adjustment of RTO is to be        allowed, rather changed if the customer has specified that a        different RTO is needed for different system environments.    -   16. Goal Validation—Prior to failure time. Ability to see        assessment of achievable recovery time, in, for instance, a        Gantt chart like manner, detailing what is achievable for each        resource and taking into account overlaps of recovery sequences,        and differentiating by system environment. Specific use can be        during risk assessments, management requests for additional        recovery related resources, mitigation plans for where there are        potentials for RTO miss. Example customer questions:        -   What is my expected recovery time for a given application            during “end of month close” system environment?        -   What is the longest component of that recovery time?        -   Can I expect to achieve the desired RTO during the “market            open” for stock exchange or financial services applications?        -   What would be the optimal sequence and parallelization of            recovery for the resources used by my business application?    -   17. Ability to prepare the environment to meet the desired        quantitative business goals, allowing for tradeoffs when shared        resources are involved. Ensure that both automated and        non-automated tasks can be incorporated into the        pre-conditioning. Example of customer question: What would I        need to do for pre-conditioning my system to support the RTO        goal I need to achieve for this business application?    -   18. Ability to incorporate operations from any vendors'        resources for pre-conditioning or recovery workflows, including        specification of which pre-conditioning operations have effect        on recoveries, which operations have dependencies on others,        either within vendor resources or across resources from multiple        vendors.    -   19. Customer ability to modify pre-conditioning workflows,        consistent with supported operations on resources.    -   20. Ability to undo pre-conditioning actions taken, when there        is a failure to complete a transactionally consistent set of        pre-conditioning actions; recognize the failure, show customers        the optional workflow to undo the actions taken, allow them to        decide preferred technique for reacting to the failure—manual        intervention, running undo set of operations, combination of        both, etc.    -   21. Ability to divide pre-conditioning work between long running        and immediate, nondisruptive short term actions.    -   22. Impact only the smallest set of resources required during        recovery, to avoid negative residual or side effects for        attempting to recover a broader set of resources than what is        actually impacted by the failure.    -   23. Choosing recovery operations based on determination of which        recovery actions address the minimal impact, to meet goal, and        then prepare for subsequent escalation in event of failure of        initial recovery actions.    -   24. Choosing a target for applications and operating systems        (OS), based on customer co-location specifications, redundancy        groups, and realtime system state.    -   25. Ability for customer to indicate specific effect that        recovery of a given business process can have on another        business process—to avoid situations where lower priority        workloads are recovered causing disruption to higher priority        workloads; handling situations where resources are shared.    -   26. Ability to prioritize ongoing recovery processing over        configuration changes to an availability system, and over any        other administration functions required for the availability        system.    -   27. Ability for recoveries and pre-conditioning actions to run        as entire transactions so that partial results are appropriately        accounted for and backed out or compensated, based on actual        effect (e.g., during recovery time or even pre-conditioning, not        all actions may succeed, so need to preserve a consistent        environment).    -   28. Allow for possible non-responsive resources or underlying        infrastructure that does not have known maximum delays in        response time in determining recovery actions, while not going        beyond the allotted recovery time.    -   29. Allow customer to change quantified business recovery        goals/targets without disruption to the existing recovery        capability, with appropriate labeling of version of the policy        to facilitate interaction with change management systems.    -   30. Allow customers to change logical groupings of resources        that have assigned recovery goals, without disruption to the        existing recovery capability, with changes versioned to        facilitate interaction with change management systems.    -   31. Ability to specify customizable human tasks, with time        specifications that can be incorporated into the goal        achievement validation so customers can understand the full time        involved for a recovery and where focusing on IT and people time        is critical to reducing RTO.    -   32. There is a requirement/desire to implement dynamically        modified redundancy groupings for those resources which are high        volume—automatic inclusion based on a specified set of        characteristics and a matching criteria.

33. There is a requirement/desire to automatically add/delete resourcesfrom the logical resource groupings for sets of resources that are notneeding individual assessment.

The above set of requirements is addressed, however, by a BusinessResiliency (BR) Management System, of which one or more aspects of thepresent invention are included. The Business Resiliency ManagementSystem provides, for instance:

1. Rapid Identification of Fault Scope.

-   -   Correlation and identification of dependencies between business        functions and the supporting IT resources.    -   Impact analysis of failures affecting business functions, across        resources used within the business functions, including the        applications and data.    -   Isolation of failure scope to smallest set of resources, to        ensure that any disruptive recovery actions effect only the        necessary resources.

2. Rapid Granular and Graceful Degradation of IT Service.

-   -   Discontinuation of services based on business priorities.    -   Selection of alternate resources at various levels may include        selection of hardware, application software, data, etc.    -   Notifications to allow applications to tailor or reduce service        consumption during times of availability constraints.    -   3. Integration of Availability Management with Normal Business        Operations and other Core Business Processes.    -   Policy controls for availability and planned reconfiguration,        aligned with business objectives.    -   Encapsulation, integration of isolated point solutions into        availability IT fabric, through identification of affected        resources and operations initiated by the solutions, as well as        business resiliency.    -   Goal based policy support, associated with Recovery Segments        that may be overlapped or nested in scope.    -   Derivation of data currency requirements, based on business        availability goals.

One goal of the BR system is to allow customers to align theirsupporting information technology systems with their business goals forhandling failures of various scopes, and to offer a continuum ofrecovery services from finer grained process failures to broader scopedsite outages. The BR system is built around the idea of identifying thecomponents that constitute a business function, and identifyingsuccessive levels of recovery that lead to more complex constructs asthe solution evolves. The various recovery options are connected by anoverall BR management capability that is driven by policy controls.

Various characteristics of one embodiment of a BR system include:

-   -   1. Capability for dynamic generation of recovery actions, into a        programmatic and manageable entity.    -   2. Dynamic generation of configuration changes required/desired        to support a customer defined Recovery Time Objective (RTO)        goal.    -   3. Dynamic definition of key Pattern System Environments (PSEs)        through statistical analysis of historical observations.    -   4. Validation of whether requested RTO goals are achievable,        based on observed historical snapshots of outages or customer        specified recovery operation time duration, in the context of        key Pattern System Environments.    -   5. BR system dynamic, automatic generation and use of standards        based Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) workflows to        specify recovery transactions and allow for customer integration        through workflow authoring tools.    -   6. Ability to configure customized scopes of recovery, based on        topologies of resources and their relationships, called Recovery        Segments (RSs).    -   7. Best practice workflows for configuration and recovery,        including, but not limited to, those for different resource        types: servers, storage, network, and middleware, as examples.    -   8. Ability to customize the definition of available, degraded,        unavailable states for Recovery Segments.    -   9. Ability to represent customers' recommended configurations        via best practice templates.    -   10. Ability to define the impact that recovery of one business        application is allowed to have on other business applications.    -   11. Ability to correlate errors from the same or multiple        resources into related outages and perform root cause analysis        prior to initiating recovery actions.    -   12. Quantified policy driven, goal oriented management of        unplanned outages.    -   13. Groupings of IT resources that have associated, consistent        recovery policy and recovery actions, classified as Recovery        Segments.    -   14. Handling of situations where the underlying error detection        and notifications system itself is unavailable.

A Business Resilience System is capable of being incorporated in andused by many types of environments. One example of a processingenvironment to incorporate and use aspects of a BR system, including oneor more aspects of the present invention, is described with reference toFIG. 1.

Processing environment 100 includes, for instance, a central processingunit (CPU) 102 coupled to memory 104 and executing an operating system106. Examples of operating systems include AIX® and z/OS®, offered byInternational Business Machines Corporation; Linux; etc. AIX® and z/OS®are registered trademarks of International Business MachinesCorporation, Armonk, N.Y., U.S.A. Other names used herein may beregistered trademarks, trademarks or product names of InternationalBusiness Machines Corporation or other companies.

The operating system manages execution of a Business Resilience RuntimeComponent 108 of a Business Resilience System, described herein, and oneor more applications 110 of an application container 112.

As examples, processing environment 100 includes an IBM° System z™processor or a pSeries™ server offered by International BusinessMachines Corporation; a Linux server; or other servers, processors, etc.Processing environment 100 may include more, less and/or differentcomponents than described herein. (pSeries® is a registered trademark ofInternational Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y., USA.)

Another example of a processing environment to incorporate and useaspects of a BR System, including one or more aspects of the presentinvention, is described with reference to FIG. 2.

As shown, a processing environment 200 includes for instance, a centralprocessing complex 202 coupled to an input/output (I/O) subsystem 204.Central processing complex 202 includes, for instance, a centralprocessing unit 206, memory 208, an operating system 210, a databasemanagement system 212, a Business Resilience Runtime Component 214, anapplication container 216 including one or more applications 218, and anI/O facility 220.

I/O facility 220 couples central processing complex 202 to I/O subsystem204 via, for example, a dynamic switch 230. Dynamic switch 230 iscoupled to a control unit 232, which is further coupled to one or moreI/O devices 234, such as one or more direct access storage devices(DASD).

Processing environments 100 and/or 200 may include, in otherembodiments, more, less and/or different components.

In yet another embodiment, a central processing complex 300 (FIG. 3)further includes a network service 302, which is used to couple acentral processing complex 300 to a processing environment 304 via anetwork subsystem 306.

For example, network service 302 of central processing complex 300 iscoupled to a switch 308 of network subsystem 306. Switch 308 is coupledto a switch 310 via routers 312 and firewalls 314. Switch 310 is furthercoupled to a network service 316 of processing environment 304.

Processing environment 304 further includes, for instance, a centralprocessing unit 320, a memory 322, an operating system 324, and anapplication container 326 including one or more applications 328. Inother embodiments, it can include more, less and/or differentcomponents.

Moreover, CPC 300 further includes, in one embodiment, a centralprocessing unit 330, a memory 332, an operating system 334, a databasemanagement system 336, a Business Resilience Runtime Component 338, anapplication container 340 including one or more applications 342, and anI/O facility 344. It also may include more, less and/or differentcomponents.

I/O facility 344 is coupled to a dynamic switch 346 of an I/O subsystem347. Dynamic switch 346 is further coupled to a control unit 348, whichis coupled to one or more I/O devices 350.

Although examples of various environments are provided herein, these areonly examples. Many variations to the above environments are possibleand are considered within the scope of the present invention.

In the above-described environments, a Business Resilience RuntimeComponent of a Business Resilience System is included. Further detailsassociated with a Business Resilience Runtime Component and a BusinessResilience System are described with reference to FIG. 4.

In one example, a Business Resilience System 400 is a component thatrepresents the management of recovery operations and configurationsacross an IT environment. Within that Business Resilience System, thereis a Business Resilience Runtime Component (402) that represents themanagement functionality across multiple distinct Recovery Segments, andprovides the service level automation and the support of creation of therecovery sequences. In addition, there are user interface (404),administration (406), installation (408) and configuration template(410) components within the Business Resilience System that enable theadministrative operations that are to be performed. Each of thesecomponents is described in further detail below.

Business Resilience Runtime Component 402 includes a plurality ofcomponents of the BR System that are directly responsible for thecollection of observations, creation of PSEs, policy acceptance,validation, error detection, and formulation of recovery sequences. Asone example, Business Resilience Runtime Component 402 includes thefollowing components:

1. One or More Business Resilience Managers (BRM) (412).

-   -   The Business Resilience Manager (BRM) is the primary component        containing logic to detect potential errors in the IT        environment, perform assessment to find resources causing        errors, and formulate recovery sequences to reestablish the        desired state for resources for all Recovery Segments that may        be impacted.    -   The Business Resilience Manager is a component of which there        can be one or more. It manages a set of Recovery Segments, and        has primary responsibility to formulate recovery sequences. The        association of which Recovery Segments are managed by a given        BRM is determined at deployment time by the customer, with the        help of deployment time templates. BRMs are primarily        responsible for operations that relate to error handling and        recovery workflow generation, and cross RS interaction.

2. One or More Recovery Segments (RS) (414).

Recovery Segments are customer-defined groupings of IT resources towhich consistent availability policy is assigned. In other words, aRecovery Segment acts as a context within which resource recovery isperformed. In many cases, Recovery Segments are compositions of ITresources that constitute logical entities, such as a middleware and itsrelated physical resources, or an “application” and its relatedcomponents.

-   -   There is no presumed granularity of a Recovery Segment.        Customers can choose to specify fine-grained Recovery Segments,        such as one for a given operating system, or a coarser grained        Recovery Segment associated with a business process and its        component parts, or even a site, as examples.    -   Relationships between IT resources associated with a RS are        those which are part of the IT topology.    -   Recovery Segments can be nested or overlapped. In case of        overlapping Recovery Segments, there can be policy associated        with each RS, and during policy validation, conflicting        definitions are reconciled. Runtime assessment is also used for        policy tradeoff.    -   The Recovery Segment has operations which support policy        expression, validation, decomposition, and assessment of state.    -   The number of Recovery Segments supported by a BR System can        vary, depending on customer configurations and business needs.    -   One BRM can manage multiple Recovery Segments, but a given RS is        managed by a single BRM. Further, Recovery Segments that share        resources, or are subset/superset of other Recovery Segments are        managed by the same BRM, in this example. Multiple BRMs can        exist in the environment, depending on performance,        availability, and/or maintainability characteristics.

3. Pattern System Environments (PSEs) (416).

-   -   Pattern System Environments (PSEs) are representations of a        customer's environment. Sets of observations are clustered        together using available mathematical tooling to generate the        PSEs. In one embodiment, the generation of a PSE is automatic. A        PSE is associated with a given RS, but a PSE may include        information that crosses RSs.    -   As one example, the representation is programmatic in that it is        contained within a structure from which information can be        added/extracted.

4. Quantified Recovery Goal (418).

-   -   A quantified recovery goal, such as a Recovery Time Objective        (RTO), is specified for each Recovery Segment that a customer        creates. If customers have multiple Pattern System Environments        (PSEs), a unique RTO for each PSE associated with the RS may be        specified.

5. Containment Region (CR) (420).

-   -   Containment Region(s) are components of the BR System which are        used at runtime to reflect the scope and impact of an outage. A        Containment Region includes, for instance, identification for a        set of impacted resources, as well as BR specific information        about the failure/degraded state, as well as proposed recovery.        CRs are associated with a set of impacted resources, and are        dynamically constructed by BR in assessing the error.    -   The original resources reporting degraded availability, as well        as the resources related to those reporting degraded        availability, are identified as part of the Containment Region.        Impacted resources are accumulated into the topology by        traversing the IT relationships and inspecting the attributes        defined to the relationships. The Containment Region is        transitioned to an inactive state after a successful recovery        workflow has completed, and after all information (or a selected        subset in another example) about the CR has been logged.

6. Redundancy Groups (RG) (422).

-   -   Redundancy Group(s) (422) are components of the BR System that        represent sets of logically equivalent services that can be used        as alternates when a resource experiences failure or        degradation. For example, three instances of a database may form        a redundancy group, if an application server requires        connectivity to one of the set of three, but does not specify        one specific instance.    -   There can be zero or more Redundancy Groups in a BR System.    -   Redundancy Groups also have an associated state that is        maintained in realtime, and can contribute to the definition of        what constitutes available, degraded, or unavailable states. In        addition, Redundancy Groups members are dynamically and        automatically selected by the BR System, based on availability        of the member and co-location constraints.

7. BR Manager Data Table (BRMD) (424).

-   -   BR maintains specific internal information related to various        resources it manages and each entry in the BR specific        Management Data (BRMD) table represents such a record of        management. Entries in the BRMD represent IT resources.

8. BR Manager Relationship Data Table (BRRD) (426).

-   -   BR maintains BR specific internal information related to the        pairings of resources it needs to interact with, and each entry        in the BR specific Relationship Data (BRRD) table represents an        instance of such a pairing. The pairing record identifies the        resources that participate in the pairing, and resources can be        any of those that appear in the BRMD above. The BRRD includes        information about the pairings, which include operation ordering        across resources, failure and degradation impact across        resources, constraint specifications for allowable recovery        actions, effect an operation has on resource state, requirements        for resource to co-locate or anti-co-locate, and effects of        preparatory actions on resources.

9. BR Asynchronous Distributor (BRAD) (428).

-   -   The BR Asynchronous Distributor (BRAD) is used to handle        asynchronous behavior during time critical queries for resource        state and key properties, recovery, and for getting observations        back from resources for the observation log.

10. Observation Log (430).

-   -   The Observation Log captures the information that is returned        through periodic observations of the environment. The        information in the Observation Log is used by cluster tooling to        generate Pattern System Environments (PSE).

11. RS Activity Log (432).

-   -   Each RS has an activity log that represents the RS actions,        successes, failures. Activity logs are internal BR structures.        Primarily, they are used for either problem determination        purposes or at runtime, recovery of failed BR components. For        example, when the RS fails and recovers, it reads the Activity        Log to understand what was in progress at time of failure, and        what needs to be handled in terms of residuals.

12. BRM Activity Log (434).

-   -   The BRM also has an activity log that represents BRM actions,        success, failures. Activity logs are internal BR structures.

13. Transaction Table (TT) (436).

-   -   The transaction table is a serialization mechanism used to house        the counts of ongoing recovery and preparatory operations. It is        associated with the RS, and is referred to as the RS TT.

In addition to the Business Resilience Runtime Component of the BRsystem, the BR system includes the following components, previouslymentioned above.

User Interface (UI) Component (404).

-   -   The User interface component is, for instance, a graphical        environment through which the customer's IT staff can make        changes to the BR configuration. As examples: create and manage        Recovery Segments; specify recovery goals; validate        achievability of goals prior to failure time; view and alter BR        generated workflows.    -   The user interface (UI) is used as the primary interface for        configuring BR. It targets roles normally associated with a        Business Analyst, Solution Architect, System Architect, or        Enterprise Architect, as examples.    -   One purpose of the BR UI is to configure the BR resources.

It allows the user to create BR artifacts that are used for a working BRruntime and also monitors the behaviors and notifications of these BRresources as they run. In addition, the BR UI allows interaction withresources in the environment through, for instance, relationships andtheir surfaced properties and operations. The user can add resources toBR to affect recovery and behaviors of the runtime environment.

-   -   The BR UI also surfaces recommendations and best practices in        the form of templates. These are reusable constructs that        present a best practice to the user which can then be approved        and realized by the user.    -   Interaction with the BR UI is based on the typical editor save        lifecycle used within, for instance, the developmental tool        known as Eclipse (available and described at www.Eclipse.org).        The user typically opens or edits an existing resource, makes        modifications, and those modifications are not persisted back to        the resource until the user saves the editor.    -   Predefined window layouts in Eclipse are called perspectives.        Eclipse views and editors are displayed in accordance with the        perspective's layout, which can be customized by the user. The        BR UI provides a layout as exemplified in the screen display        depicted in FIG. 5A.    -   Screen display 500 depicted in FIG. 5A displays one example of a        Business Resilience Perspective. Starting in the upper left        corner and rotating clockwise, the user interface includes, for        instance:

1. Business Resilience View 502

-   -   This is where the user launches topologies and definition        templates for viewing and editing.

2. Topology/Definition Template Editor 504

-   -   This is where the editors are launched from the Business        Resilience View display. The user can have any number of editors        open at one time.

3. Properties View/Topology Resources View/Search View

-   -   The property and topology resource views are driven off the        active editor. They display information on the currently        selected resource and allow the user to modify settings within        the editor.

4. Outline View 508

-   -   This view provides a small thumbnail of the topology or template        being displayed in the editor. The user can pan around the        editor quickly by moving the thumbnail.    -   The topology is reflected by a RS, as shown in the screen        display of FIG. 5B. In FIG. 5B, a Recovery Segment 550 is        depicted, along with a list of one or more topology resources        552 of the RS (not necessarily shown in the current view of the        RS).    -   In one example, the BR UI is created on the Eclipse Rich Client        Platform (RCP), meaning it has complete control over the Eclipse        environment, window layouts, and overall behavior. This allows        BR to tailor the Eclipse platform and remove Eclipse artifacts        not directly relevant to the BR UI application, allowing the        user to remain focused, while improving usability.    -   BR extends the basic user interface of Eclipse by creating        software packages called “plugins' that plug into the core        Eclipse platform architecture to extend its capabilities. By        implementing the UI as a set of standard Eclipse plug-ins, BR        has the flexibility to plug into Eclipse, WebSphere Integration        Developer, or Rational product installs, as examples. The UI        includes two categories of plug-ins, those that are BR specific        and those that are specific to processing resources in the IT        environment. This separation allows the resource plug-ins to be        potentially re-used by other products.    -   By building upon Eclipse, BR has the option to leverage other        tooling being developed for Eclipse. This is most apparent in        its usage of BPEL workflow tooling, but the following packages        and capabilities are also being leveraged, in one embodiment, as        well:        -   The Eclipse platform provides two graphical toolkit            packages, GEF and Draw2D, which are used by BR, in one            example, to render topology displays and handle the rather            advanced topology layouts and animations. These packages are            built into the base Eclipse platform and provide the            foundation for much of the tooling and topology user            interfaces provided by this design.        -   The Eclipse platform allows building of advanced editors and            forms, which are being leveraged for BR policy and template            editing. Much of the common support needed for editors, from            the common save lifecycle to undo and redo support, is            provided by Eclipse.        -   The Eclipse platform provides a sophisticated Welcome and            Help system, which helps introduce and helps users to get            started configuring their environment. Likewise, Eclipse            provides a pluggable capability to create task instructions,            which can be followed step-by-step by the user to accomplish            common or difficult tasks.

BR Admin Mailbox (406) (FIG. 4).

-   -   The BR Admin (or Administrative) Mailbox is a mechanism used by        various flows of the BR runtime to get requests to an        administrator to take some action. The Admin mailbox        periodically retrieves information from a table, where BR keeps        an up-to-date state.    -   As an example, the Admin Mailbox defines a mechanism where BR        can notify the user of important events needing user attention        or at least user awareness. The notifications are stored in the        BR database so they can be recorded while the UI is not running        and then shown to the user during their next session.    -   The notifications are presented to the user, in one example, in        their own Eclipse view, which is sorted by date timestamp to        bubble the most recent notifications to the top. An example of        this view is shown in FIG. 6A. As shown, a view 600 is presented        that includes messages 602 relating to resources 604. A date        timestamp 606 is also included therewith.    -   Double clicking a notification opens an editor on the        corresponding resource within the BR UI, which surfaces the        available properties and operations the user may need to handle        the notification.    -   The user is able to configure the UI to notify them whenever a        notification exceeding a certain severity is encountered. The UI        then alerts 650 the user of the notification and message when it        comes in, as shown in FIG. 6B, in one example.    -   When alerted, the user can choose to open the corresponding        resource directly. If the user selects No, the user can revisit        the message or resource by using the above notification log        view.

BR Install Logic (408) (FIG. 4).

-   -   The BR Install logic initializes the environment through        accessing the set of preconfigured template information and        vendor provided tables containing resource and relationship        information, then applying any customizations initiated by the        user.

Availability Configuration Templates (410):

Recovery Segment Templates

-   -   The BR System has a set of Recovery Segment templates which        represent common patterns of resources and relationships. These        are patterns matched with each individual customer environment        to produce recommendations for RS definitions to the customer,        and offer these visually for customization or acceptance.

Redundancy Group Templates

-   -   The BR System has a set of Redundancy Group templates which        represent common patterns of forming groups of redundant        resources. These are optionally selected and pattern matched        with each individual customer environment to produce        recommendations for RG definitions to a customer.

BR Manager Deployment Templates

-   -   The BR System has a set of BR Manager Deployment templates which        represent recommended configurations for deploying the BR        Manager, its related Recovery Segments, and the related BR        management components. There are choices for distribution or        consolidation of these components. Best practice information is        combined with optimal availability and performance        characteristics to recommend a configuration, which can then be        subsequently accepted or altered by the customer.

Pairing Templates

-   -   The BR System has a set of Pairing Templates used to represent        best practice information about which resources are related to        each other.

The user interface, admin mailbox, install logic and/or templatecomponents can be part of the same computing unit executing BR Runtimeor executed on one or more other distributed computing units.

To further understand the use of some of the above components and theirinterrelationships, the following example is offered. This example isonly offered for clarification purposes and is not meant to be limitingin any way.

Referring to FIG. 7, a Recovery Segment RS 700 is depicted. It isassumed for this Recovery Segment that:

-   -   The Recovery Segment RS has been defined associated with an        instantiated and deployed BR Manager for monitoring and        management.    -   Relationships have been established between the Recovery Segment        RS and the constituent resources 702 a-702 m.    -   A goal policy has been defined and validated for the Recovery        Segment through interactions with the BR UI.    -   The following impact pairings have been assigned to the        resources and relationships:

Rule Resource #1 State Resource #2 State 1 App-A Degraded RS Degraded 2App-A Unavailable RS Unavailable 3 DB2 Degraded CICS Unavailable 4 CICSUnavailable App-A Unavailable 5 CICS Degraded App-A Degraded 6OSStorage-1 Unavailable CICS Degraded 7 OSStorage-1 Unavailable StorageCopy Set Degraded 8 DB2 User & Degraded DB2 Degraded Log Data 9OSStorage-2 Unavailable DB2 User & Degraded Log Data 10 z/OS UnavailableCICS Unavailable 11 z/OS Unavailable DB2 Unavailable 12 Storage Copy SetDegraded CICS User & Degraded Log Data 13 Storage Copy Set Degraded DB2User & Degraded Log Data

-   -   The rules in the above table correspond to the numbers in the        figure. For instance, #12 (704) corresponds to Rule 12 above.    -   Observation mode for the resources in the Recovery Segment has        been initiated either by the customer or as a result of policy        validation.    -   The environment has been prepared as a result of that goal        policy via policy validation and the possible creation and        execution of a preparatory workflow.    -   The goal policy has been activated for monitoring by BR.

As a result of these conditions leading up to runtime, the followingsubscriptions have already taken place:

-   -   The BRM has subscribed to runtime state change events for the        RS.    -   RS has subscribed to state change events for the constituent        resources.

These steps highlight one example of an error detection process:

-   -   The OSStorage-1 resource 702 h fails (goes Unavailable).    -   RS gets notified of state change event.    -   1^(st) level state aggregation determines:        -   Storage Copy Set→Degraded        -   CICS User & Log Data→Degraded        -   DB2 User & Log Data→Degraded        -   DB2→Degraded        -   CICS→Unavailable        -   App-A→Unavailable    -   1^(st) level state aggregation determines:        -   RS→Unavailable    -   BRM gets notified of RS state change. Creates the following        Containment Region:

Resource Reason OSStorage-1 Unavailable Storage Copy Set Degraded CICSUser & Log Data Degraded DB2 User & Log Data Degraded DB2 Degraded App-AUnavailable CICS Unavailable RS Unavailable

-   -   Creates a recovery workflow based on the following resources:

Resource State OSStorage-1 Unavailable Storage Copy Set Degraded CICSUser & Log Data Degraded DB2 User & Log Data Degraded DB2 Degraded App-AUnavailable CICS Unavailable RS Unavailable

In addition to the above, BR includes a set of design points that helpin the understanding of the system. These design points include, forinstance:

Goal Policy Support

BR is targeted towards goal based policies—the customer configures histarget availability goal, and BR determines the preparatory actions andrecovery actions to achieve that goal (e.g., automatically).

Availability management of the IT infrastructure through goal basedpolicy is introduced by this design. The BR system includes the abilityto author and associate goal based availability policy with the resourceRecovery Segments described herein. In addition, support is provided todecompose the goal policy into configuration settings, preparatoryactions and runtime procedures in order to execute against the deployedavailability goal. In one implementation of the BR system, the RecoveryTime Objective (RTO—time to recover post outage) is a supported goalpolicy. Additional goal policies of data currency (e.g., Recovery PointObjective) and downtime maximums, as well as others, can also beimplemented with the BR system. Recovery Segments provide the contextfor association of goal based availability policies, and are the scopefor goal policy expression supported in the BR design. The BR systemmanages the RTO through an understanding of historical information,metrics, recovery time formulas (if available), and actions that affectthe recovery time for IT resources.

RTO goals are specified by the customer at a Recovery Segment level andapportioned to the various component resources grouped within the RS. Inone example, RTO goals are expressed as units of time intervals, such asseconds, minutes, and hours. Each RS can have one RTO goal per PatternSystem Environment associated with the RS. Based on the metricsavailable from the IT resources, and based on observed history and/ordata from the customer, the RTO goal associated with the RS is evaluatedfor achievability, taking into account which resources are able to berecovered in parallel.

Based on the RTO for the RS, a set of preparatory actions expressed as aworkflow is generated. This preparatory workflow configures theenvironment or makes alterations in the current configuration, toachieve the RTO goal or to attempt to achieve the goal.

In terms of optimizing RTO, there are tradeoffs associated with thechoices that are possible for preparatory and recovery actions.Optimization of recovery choice is performed by BR, and may includeinteraction at various levels of sophistication with IT resources. Insome cases, BR may set specific configuration parameters that aresurfaced by the IT resource to align with the stated RTO. In othercases, BR may request that an IT resource itself alter its managementfunctions to achieve some portion of the overall RS RTO. In either case,BR aligns availability management of the IT resources contained in theRS with the stated RTO.

Metrics and Goal Association

In this design, as one example, there is an approach to collecting therequired or desired metrics data, both observed and key varying factors,system profile information that is slow or non-moving, as well aspotential formulas that reflect a specific resource's use of the keyfactors in assessing and performing recovery and preparatory actions,historical data and system information. The information and raw metricsthat BR uses to perform analysis and RTO projections are expressed aspart of the IT resources, as resource properties. BR specificinterpretations and results of statistical analysis of key factorscorrelated to recovery time are kept as BR Specific Management data(BRMD).

Relationships Used by BR, and BR Specific Resource Pairing Information

BR maintains specific information about the BR management of eachresource pairing or relationship between resources. Informationregarding the BR specific data for a resource pairing is kept by BR,including information such as ordering of operations across resources,impact assessment information, operation effect on availability state,constraint analysis of actions to be performed, effects of preparatoryactions on resources, and requirements for resources to co-locate oranti-co-locate.

Evaluation of Failure Scope

One feature of the BR function is the ability to identify the scope andimpact of a failure. The BR design uses a Containment Region to identifythe resources affected by an incident. The Containment Region isinitially formed with a fairly tight restriction on the scope of impact,but is expanded on receiving errors related to the first incident. Theimpact and scope of the failure is evaluated by traversing the resourcerelationships, evaluating information on BR specific resource pairinginformation, and determining most current state of the resourcesimpacted.

Generation and Use of Workflow

Various types of preparatory and recovery processes are formulated andin some cases, optionally initiated. Workflows used by BR aredynamically generated based on, for instance, customer requirements forRTO goal, based on actual scope of failure, and based on anyconfiguration settings customers have set for the BR system.

A workflow includes one or more operations to be performed, such asStart CICS, etc. Each operation takes time to execute and this amount oftime is learned based on execution of the workflows, based on historicaldata in the observation log or from customer specification of executiontime for operations. The workflows formalize, in a machine readable,machine editable form, the operations to be performed.

In one example, the processes are generated into Business ProcessExecution Language (BPEL) compliant workflows with activities that areoperations on IT resources or specified manual, human activities. Forexample, BRM automatically generates the workflows in BPEL. Thisautomatic generation includes invoking routines to insert activities tobuild the workflow, or forming the activities and building the XML(Extensible Mark-Up Language). Since these workflows are BPEL standardcompliant, they can be integrated with other BPEL defined workflowswhich may incorporate manual activities performed by the operationsstaff. These BR related workflows are categorized as follows, in oneexample:

-   -   Preparatory—Steps taken during the policy prepare phase in        support of a given goal, such as the setting of specific        configuration values, or the propagation of availability related        policy on finer grained resources in the Recovery Segment        composition. BR generates preparatory workflows, for instance,        dynamically. Examples of preparatory actions include setting up        storage replication, and starting additional instances of        middleware subsystems to support redundancy.    -   Recovery—Steps taken as a result of fault detection during        runtime monitoring of the environment, such as, for example,        restarting a failed operating system (OS). BR generates recovery        workflows dynamically, in one example, based on the actual        failure rather than a prespecified sequence.    -   Preventive—Steps taken to contain or fence an error condition        and prevent the situation from escalating to a more substantial        outage or impact; for example, the severing of a failed        resource's relationship instances to other resources. Preventive        workflows are also dynamically generated, in one example.    -   Return—Steps taken to restore the environment back to ‘normal        operations’ post recovery, also represented as dynamically        generated workflows, as one example.

Capturing of Workflow Information

Since the set of BR actions described above modify existing ITenvironments, visibility to the actions that are taken by BR prior tothe actual execution is provided. To gain trust in the decisions andrecommendations produced by BR, the BR System can run in ‘advisorymode’. As part of advisory mode, the possible actions that would betaken are constructed into a workflow, similar to what would be done toactually execute the processes. The workflows are then made visiblethrough standard workflow authoring tooling for customers to inspect ormodify. Examples of BPEL tooling include:

-   -   Bolie, et al., BPEL Cookbook: Best Practices for SOA-based        Integration and Composite Applications Development, ISBN        1904811337, 2006, PACKT Publishing, hereby incorporated herein        by reference in its entirety;    -   Juric, et al., Business Process Execution Language for Web        Services: BPEL and BPEL YWS, ISBN 1-904811-18-3, 2004, PACKT        Publishing, hereby incorporated herein by reference in its        entirety.    -   http://www-306.ibm.com/software/integration/wid/about/?S_CMP=mav    -   http://www.eclipse.org/bpel/    -   http://www.parasoft.com/jsp/products/home.jsp;jessionid=aaa56iqFywA-HJ?product=BPEL&redname=googbpelm&referred=searchengine%2Fgoogle%Fbpel

Tooling Lifecycle, Support of Managed Resources and Roles

BR tooling spans the availability management lifecycle from definitionof business objectives, IT resource selection, availability policyauthoring and deployment, development and deployment of runtimemonitors, etc. In one example, support for the following is captured inthe tooling environment for the BR system:

-   -   Visual presentation of the IT resources & their relationships,        within both an operations and administration context.    -   Configuration and deployment of Recovery Segments and BRMs.    -   Authoring and deployment of a BR policy.    -   Modification of availability configuration or policy changes for        BR.    -   BPEL tooling to support viewing of BR created, as well as        customer authored, workflows.    -   BPEL tooling to support monitoring of workflow status, related        to an operations console view of IT resource operational state.

Policy Lifecycle

The policy lifecycle for BR goal policies, such as RTO goals, includes,for example:

-   -   Define—Policy is specified to a RS, but no action is taken by        the BRM to support the policy (observation information may be        obtained).    -   Validate—Policy is validated for syntax, capability, etc.;        preparatory workflow created for viewing and validation by        customer.    -   Prepare—Preparatory action workflows are optionally executed.

Activate—Policy is activated for runtime monitoring of the environment.

Modify—Policy is changed dynamically in runtime.

Configurable State Aggregation

One of the points in determining operational state of a Recovery Segmentis that this design allows for customers to configure a definition ofspecific ‘aggregated’ states, using properties of individual ITresources. A Recovery Segment is an availability management context, inone example, which may include a diverse set of IT resources.

The customer may provide the rules logic used within the RecoverySegment to consume the relevant IT resource properties and determine theoverall state of the RS (available, degraded and unavailable, etc). Thecustomer can develop and deploy these rules as part of the RecoverySegment availability policy. For example, if there is a databaseincluded in the Recovery Segment, along with the supporting operatingsystem, storage, and network resources, a customer may configure one setof rules that requires that the database must have completed therecovery of in-flight work in order to consider the overall RecoverySegment available. As another example, customers may choose to configurea definition of availability based on transaction rate metrics for adatabase, so that if the rate falls below some value, the RS isconsidered unavailable or degraded, and evaluation of ‘failure’ impactwill be triggered within the BR system. Using these configurations,customers can tailor both the definitions of availability, as well asthe rapidity with which problems are detected, since any IT resourceproperty can be used as input to the aggregation, not just theoperational state of IT resources.

Failure During Workflow Sequences of Preparatory, Recovery, Preventive

Failures occurring during sequences of operations executed within a BPELcompliant process workflow are intended to be handled through use ofBPEL declared compensation actions, associated with the workflowactivities that took a failure. The BR System creates associated “undo”workflows that are then submitted to compensate, and reset theenvironment to a stable state, based on where in the workflow thefailure occurred.

Customer Values

The following set of customer values, as examples, are derived from theBR system functions described above, listed here with supportingtechnologies from the BR system:

-   -   Align total IT runtime environment to business function        availability objectives:        -   RS definition from representation of IT Resources;        -   Goal (RTO) and action policy specification, validation and            activation; and        -   Tooling by Eclipse, as an example, to integrate with IT            process management.    -   Rapid, flexible, administrative level:        -   Alteration of operation escalation rules;        -   Customization of workflows for preparatory and recovery to            customer goals;        -   Customization of IT resource selection from RG based on            quality of service (QoS);        -   Alteration of definition of IT resource and business            application state (available, degraded, or unavailable);        -   Customization of aggregated state;        -   Modification of topology for RS and RG definition;        -   Selection of BR deployment configuration;        -   Alteration of IT resource recovery metrics;        -   Customization of generated Pattern System Environments; and        -   Specification of statistical tolerances required for system            environment formation or recovery metric usage.    -   Extensible framework for customer and vendor resources:        -   IT resource definitions not specific to BR System; and        -   Industry standard specification of workflows, using, for            instance, BPEL standards.    -   Adaptive to configuration changes and optimization:        -   IT resource lifecycle and relationships dynamically            maintained;        -   System event infrastructure utilized for linkage of IT            resource and BR management;        -   IT resource recovery metrics identified and collected;        -   IT resource recovery metrics used in forming Pattern System            Environments;        -   Learned recovery process effectiveness applied to successive            recovery events;        -   System provided measurement of eventing infrastructure            timing;        -   Dynamic formation of time intervals for aggregation of            related availability events to a root cause; and        -   Distribution of achieved recovery time over constituent            resources.

Incremental adoption and coexistence with other availability offerings:

-   -   -   Potential conflict of multiple managers for a resource based            on IT representation;        -   Workflows for recovery and preparatory reflect operations            with meta data linked to existing operations;        -   Advisory mode execution for preparatory and recovery            workflows; and        -   Incremental inclusion of resources of multiple types.

    -   Support for resource sharing:        -   Overlapping and contained RS;        -   Merger of CR across RS and escalation of failure scope; and        -   Preparatory and recovery workflows built to stringency            requirements over multiple RS.

    -   Extensible formalization of best practices based on industry        standards:        -   Templates and patterns for RS and RG definition;        -   Preparatory and recovery workflows (e.g., BPEL) for            customization, adoption; and        -   Industry standard workflow specifications enabling            integration across customer and multiple vendors.

    -   Integration of business resilience with normal runtime        operations and IT process automation:        -   Option to base on IT system wide, open industry standard            representation of resources;        -   BR infrastructure used for localized recovery within a            system, cluster and across sites; and        -   Utilization of common system infrastructure for events,            resource discovery, workflow processing, visualization.

Management of the IT environment is adaptively performed, as describedherein and in a U.S. patent application “Adaptive Business ResiliencyComputer System for Information Technology Environments,”(POU920070364US1), Bobak et al., co-filed herewith, which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Many different sequences of activities can be undertaken in creating aBR environment. The following represents one possible sequence; however,many other sequences are possible. This sequence is provided merely tofacilitate an understanding of a BR system and one or more aspects ofthe present invention. This sequence is not meant to be limiting in anyway. In the following description, reference is made to various U.S.patent applications, which are co-filed herewith.

On receiving the BR and related product offerings, an installationprocess is undertaken. Subsequent to installation of the products, a BRadministrator may define the configuration for BR manager instances withthe aid of BRM configuration templates.

Having defined the BRM configuration a next step could be to defineRecovery Segments as described in “Recovery Segments for ComputerBusiness Applications,” (POU920070108US1), Bobak et al., which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Definition of a RS may use a representation of resources in a topologygraph as described in “Use of Graphs in Managing ComputingEnvironments,” (POU920070112US1), Bobak et al., which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

It is expected that customers will enable BR operation in “observation”mode for a period of time to gather information regarding key metricsand operation execution duration associated with resources in a RS.

At some point, sufficient observation data will have been gathered or acustomer may have sufficient knowledge of the environment to be managedby BR. A series of activities may then be undertaken to prepare the RSfor availability management by BR. As one example, the following stepsmay be performed iteratively.

A set of functionally equivalent resources may be defined as describedin “Use of Redundancy Groups in Runtime Computer Management of BusinessApplications,” (POU920070113US1), Bobak et al., which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Specification of the availability state for individual resources,redundancy groups and Recovery Segments may be performed as described in“Use of Multi-Level State Assessment in Computer Business Environments,”(POU920070114US1), Bobak et al., which is hereby incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

Representations for the IT environment in which BR is to operate may becreated from historical information captured during observation mode, asdescribed in “Computer Pattern System Environment Supporting BusinessResiliency,” (POU920070107US1), Bobak et al., which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety. These definitionsprovide the context for understanding how long it takes to performoperations which change the configuration—especially during recoveryperiods.

Information on relationships between resources may be specified based onrecommended best practices—expressed in templates—or based on customerknowledge of their IT environment as described in “Conditional ComputerRuntime Control of an Information Technology Environment Based onPairing Constructs,” (POU920070110US1), Bobak et al., which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Pairing processingprovides the mechanism for reflecting required or desired order ofexecution for operations, the impact of state change for one resource onanother, the effect execution of an operation is expected to have on aresource state, desire to have one subsystem located on the same systemas another and the effect an operation has on preparing the environmentfor availability management.

With preliminary definitions in place, a next activity of the BRadministrator might be to define the goals for availability of thebusiness application represented by a Recovery Segment as described in“Programmatic Validation in an Information Technology Environment,”(POU920070111US1), Bobak et al., which is hereby incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

Managing the IT environment to meet availability goals includes havingthe BR system prioritize internal operations. The mechanism utilized toachieve the prioritization is described in “Serialization in ComputerManagement,” (POU920070105US1), Bobak et al., which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Multiple operations are performed to prepare an IT environment to meet abusiness application's availability goal or to perform recovery when afailure occurs. The BR system creates workflows to achieve the requiredor desired ordering of operations, as described in “Dynamic Generationof Processes in Computing Environments,” (POU920070123US1), Bobak etal., which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

A next activity in achieving a BR environment might be execution of theordered set of operations used to prepare the IT environment, asdescribed in “Dynamic Selection of Actions in an Information TechnologyEnvironment,” (POU920070117US1), Bobak et al., which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Management by BR to achieve availability goals may be initiated, whichmay initiate or continue monitoring of resources to detect changes intheir operational state, as described herein, in accordance with one ormore aspects of the present invention. Monitoring of resources may havealready been initiated as a result of “observation” mode processing.

Changes in resource or redundancy group state may result in impactingthe availability of a business application represented by a RecoverySegment. Analysis of the environment following an error is performed.The analysis allows sufficient time for related errors to be reported,insures gathering of resource state completes in a timely manner andinsures sufficient time is provided for building and executing therecovery operations—all within the recovery time goal, as described in“Management Based on Computer Dynamically Adjusted Discrete Phases ofEvent Correlation,” (POU920070119US1), Bobak et al, which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

A mechanism is provided for determining if events impacting theavailability of the IT environment are related, and if so, aggregatingthe failures to optimally scope the outage, as described in “Managementof Computer Events in a Computer Environment,” (POU920070118US1), Bobaket al., which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety.

Ideally, current resource state can be gathered after scoping of afailure. However, provisions are made to insure management to theavailability goal is achievable in the presence of non-responsivecomponents in the IT environment, as described in “Managing the ComputerCollection of Information in an Information Technology Environment,”(POU920070121US1), Bobak et al., which is hereby incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

With the outage scoped and current resource state evaluated, the BRenvironment can formulate an optimized recovery set of operations tomeet the availability goal, as described in “Defining a ComputerRecovery Process that Matches the Scope of Outage,” (POU920070124US1),Bobak et al., which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety.

Formulation of a recovery plan is to uphold customer specificationregarding the impact recovery operations can have between differentbusiness applications, as described in “Managing Execution Within aComputing Environment,” (POU920070115US1), Bobak et al., which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Varying levels of recovery capability exist with resources used tosupport a business application. Some resources possess the ability toperform detailed recovery actions while others do not. For resourcescapable of performing recovery operations, the BR system provides fordelegation of recovery if the resource is not shared by two or morebusiness applications, as described in “Conditional Actions Based onRuntime Conditions of a Computer System Environment,” (POU920070116US1),Bobak et al., which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety.

Having evaluated the outage and formulated a set of recovery operations,the BR system resumes monitoring for subsequent changes to the ITenvironment.

In support of mainline BR system operation, there are a number ofactivities including, for instance:

-   -   Coordination for administrative task that employ multiple steps,        as described in “Adaptive Computer Sequencing of Actions,”        (POU920070106US1), Bobak et al., which is hereby incorporated        herein by reference in its entirety.    -   Use of provided templates representing best practices in        defining the BR system, as described in “Defining and Using        Templates in Configuring Information Technology Environments,”        (POU920070109US1), Bobak et al., which is hereby incorporated        herein by reference in its entirety.    -   Use of provided templates in formulation of workflows, as        described in “Using Templates in a Computing Environment,”        (POU920070126US1), Bobak et al., which is hereby incorporated        herein by reference in its entirety.    -   Making changes to the availability goals while supporting        ongoing BR operation, as described in “Non-Disruptively Changing        a Computing Environment,” (POU920070122US1), Bobak et al., which        is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.    -   Making changes to the scope of a business application or        Recovery Segment, as described in “Non-Disruptively Changing        Scope of Computer Business Applications Based on Detected        Changes in Topology,” (POU920070125US1), Bobak et al., which is        hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.    -   Detecting and recovery for the BR system is performed        non-disruptively, as described in “Managing Processing of a        Computing Environment During Failures of the Environment,”        (POU920070365US1), Bobak et al., which is hereby incorporated        herein in its entirety.

In order to build a BR environment that meets recovery time objectives,IT configurations within a customer's location are to be characterizedand knowledge about the duration of execution for recovery timeoperations within those configurations is to be gained. ITconfigurations and the durations for operation execution vary by time,constituent resources, quantity and quality of application invocations,as examples. Customer environments vary widely in configuration of ITresources in support of business applications. Understanding thecustomer environment and the duration of operations within thoseenvironments aids in insuring a Recovery Time Objective is achievableand in building workflows to alter the customer configuration of ITresources in advance of a failure and/or when a failure occurs.

A characterization of IT configurations within a customer location isbuilt by having knowledge of the key recovery time characteristics forindividual resources (i.e., the resources that are part of the ITconfiguration being managed; also referred to as managed resources).Utilizing the representation for a resource, a set of key recovery timeobjective (RTO) metrics are specified by the resource owner. Duringongoing operations, the BR manager gathers values for these key RTOmetrics and gathers timings for the operations that are used to alterthe configuration. It is expected that customers will run the BRfunction in “observation” mode prior to having provided a BR policy foravailability management or other management. While executing in“observation” mode, the BR manager periodically gathers RTO metrics andoperation execution durations from resource representations. The key RTOmetrics properties, associated values and operation execution times arerecorded in an Observation log for later analysis through tooling. KeyRTO metrics and operation execution timings continue to be gatheredduring active BR policy management in order to maintain currency anditeratively refine data used to characterize customer IT configurationsand operation timings within those configurations.

Examples of RTO properties and value range information by resource typeare provided in the below table. It will be apparent to those skilled inthe art that additional, less, and/or different resource types,properties and/or value ranges may be provided.

Resource Type Property Value Range Operating System Identifier TextState Ok, stopping, planned stop, stopped, starting, error, lostmonitoring capability, unknown Memory Size Units in MB Number of systemsin sysplex, if integer applicable Last IPL time of day Units in time ofday/clock Type of last IPL Cold, warm, emergency Total Real StorageAvailable Units in MB GRS Star Mode Yes or No Complete IPL time to reachUnits of elapsed time ‘available’ Total CPU using to reach Units ofelapsed time available during IPL Total CPU delay to reach Units ofelapsed time available during IPL Total Memory using to reach Units inMB available during IPL Total Memory delay to reach Units of elapsedtime available during IPL Total i/o requests Integer value, number ofrequests Total i/o using to reach available Units of elapsed time duringIPL Total i/o delay to reach available Units of elapsed time during IPLComputer System (LPAR, Identifier Text Server, etc.) State Ok, stopping,stopped, planned down, starting, error, lost monitoring capability,unknown Type of CPU - model, type, Text value serial Number of CPUsinteger Number of shared processors integer Number of dedicatedprocessors integer Last Activate Time of Day Units in time of day/clockNetwork Components Group of Network Connections Identity OperationalState Ok, Starting, Disconnected, Stopping, Degraded, Unknown State ofeach associated Network Text Application Connection Performance Stats onloss and Complex delays Recovery Time for any Units in elapsed timeassociated application network connections Number of active applicationInteger network connections associated at time of network problemStopped Time/duration for Units in elapsed time group of connectoinsMaximum Network Recovery Units in elapsed time Time for any applicationconnection in group Maximum Number of active Integer connections at timeof network problem encountered, for any application connection in groupMaximum Number of Integer connections processed at time of networkrecovery, for the group of connections Maximum network connection Unitsin elapsed time recovery time/duration for any application connection inthe group Maximum Number of Integer connections dropped at time ofapplication network connection recovery, for any application connectionin the group Network Application Connection Identity Text State Ok,Stopping, Degraded, Error, Unknown Configuration Settings ComplexAssociated TCP/IP Parameter Text Settings Requirement Policies QoS or BRpolicies Performance Statistics, rules, Complex service class, number ofactive Network OS services State update Interval Units of elapsed timeLast restart time of day Units in time of day/clock Last RestartTime/Duration Units in elapsed time Network Recovery Time for app Unitsin elapsed time connection Number of active connections at Integer timeof network problem encountered, on a per app connection basis Number ofconnections Integer processed at time of network recovery, for the appconnection application network connection Units in elapsed time recoverytime/duration Number of connections at time of Integer applicationnetwork connection problem encountered Number of connections Integerprocessed at time of application network connection recovery Number ofconnections dropped Integer at time of application network connectionrecovery Network Host Connection Identity Text State Ok, Stopping,Degraded, Error, Unknown Configuration Settings Complex AssociatedTCP/IP Parameter Text Settings Requirement Policies QoS or BR policiesPerformance Statistics, rules, Complex service class, number of activeNetwork OS services State update Interval Units of elapsed time Lastrestart time of day Units in time of day/clock Last RestartTime/Duration Units in elapsed time Number of QoS Events, Integerindicating potential degradation Number of QoS Events handled, IntegerLast handled QoS Event Text Database Subsystem Name, identifier TextOperational State Operational, Nonoperational, starting, stopping, inrecovery, log suspended, backup initiated, restore initiated, restorecomplete, in checkpoint, checkpoint completed, applying log, backing outinflights, resolving indoubts, planned termination, lost monitoringcapability Time spent in log apply Units of elapsed time Time spentduring inflight Units of elapsed time processing Time spent duringindoubt Units of elapsed time processing Total time to restart Units ofelapsed time Checkpoint frequency Units of time Backout Duration Numberof records to read back in log during restart processing CPU Used duringRestart Units of elapsed time CPU Delay during Restart Units of elapsedtime Memory Used during Restart Units in MB Memory Delay during RestartUnits of elapsed time I/O Requests during restart Integer value ofnumber of requests I/O using during restart Units of elapsed time I/ODelay during restart Units of elapsed time Database Datasharing GroupIdentifer Text Operational State Operational, nonoperational, degraded(some subset of members non operational), lost monitoring capabilityNumber of locks in Shared Integer value Facility Time spent in lockcleanup for Elapsed time value last restart Database Identifier TextTablespace Identifier Text Transaction Region Identifier Text Name TextAssociated job name Text Maximum number of tasks/ Integer value threadsRestart type for next restart Warm, cold, emergency Forward log nameText System log name Text Operational State Operational, nonoperational,in recovery, starting, stop normal first quiesce, stop normal secondquiesce, stop normal third quiesce Time spent in log apply Units ofelapsed time Time during each recovery stage Units of elapsed time Totaltime to restart Units of elapsed time CPU Used during Restart Units ofelapsed time CPU Delay during Restart Units of elapsed time Memory Usedduring Restart Units in MB Memory Delay during Restart Units of elapsedtime I/O Requests during restart Integer value of number of requests I/Oconnect time during restart Units of elapsed time I/O Delay duringrestart Units of elapsed time System Logsize Units in MB Forward LogsizeUnits in MB Activity Keypoint frequency Integer - number of writesbefore activity checkpoint taken Average Transaction Rate for Number oftransactions per this region second, on average Transaction Group Groupname Text Transaction Region File Filename Text Region Name Text DatasetName Text Operational State Operational/enabled, nonoperational/disabledOpen status Open, closed, closing Transaction Identifier TextOperational State Running, failed, shunted, retry in progress RegionName (s) that can run this Text transaction Program Name Text LogicalReplication Group of Identity Text related datasets State Requiredcurrency characteristics Complex for datasets Required consistencyComplex characteristics for datasets Replication Group Identity StateReplication Session Identity State Established, in progress replication,replication successful complete Type of Session Flash copy, metromirror, etc. Duration of last replication Units in elapsed time Time ofDay for last replication Units in time of day/clock Amount of datareplicated at last Units in MB replication Roleset Identity Text StateCopySet Identity Text State Dataset Identity Text State Open, ClosedStorage Group Identity Text State Storage Volume Identity Text StateOnline, offline, boxed, unknown Logical Storage Subsystem Identity TextState Storage Subsystem Identity Text State Subsystem I/O Velocity -ratio of time channels are being used Replication Link (Logical)Identity Text between Logical Subsystems State Operational,nonoperational, degraded redundancy Number of configured pipes IntegerNumber of operational pipes Integer

A specific example of key RTO properties for a z/OS® image is depictedin FIG. 8A. As shown, for a z/OS® image 800, the following propertiesare identified: GRS mode 802, CLPA? (i.e., Was the link pack area pagespace initialized?) 804, I/O bytes moved 806, real memory size 808, #CPs 810, CPU speed 812, and CPU delay 814, as examples.

The z/OS® image has a set of RTO metrics associated therewith, asdescribed above. Other resources may also have its own set of metrics.An example of this is depicted in FIG. 8B, in which a Recovery Segment820 is shown that includes a plurality of resources 822 a-m, each havingits own set of metrics 822 a-m, as indicated by the shading.

Further, in one example, the RTO properties from each of the resourcesthat are part of the Recovery Segment for App A have been gathered by BRand formed into an “observation” for recording to the Observation log,as depicted at 850.

Resources have varying degrees of functionality to support RTO goalpolicy. Such capacity is evaluated by BR, and expressed in resourceproperty RTOGoalCapability in the BRMD entry for the resource. Twooptions for BR to receive information operation execution timings are:use of historical data or use of explicitly customer configured data. IfBR relies on historical data to make recovery time projections, thenbefore a statistically meaningful set of data is collected, thisresource is not capable of supporting goal policy. A mix of resourcescan appear in a given RS—some have a set of observations that allowclassification of the operation execution times, and others areexplicitly configured by the customer.

Calculation of projected recovery time can be accomplished in two ways,depending on customer choice: use of historical observations or use ofcustomers input timings. The following is an example of values for theRTOGoalCapability metadata that is found in the BRMD entry for theresource that indicates this choice:

UseHistoricalObservations The resource has a collection of statisticallymeaningful observations of recovery time, where definition of‘statistically valid’ is provided on a resource basis, as default by BR,but tailorable by customers UseCustomerInputTimings The customer canexplicitly set the operation timings for a resource

If the customer is in observation mode, then historical information iscaptured, regardless of whether the customer has indicated use ofexplicitly input timings or use of historical information.

The administrator can alter, on a resource basis, which set of timingsBR is to use. The default is to use historical observations. Inparticular, a change source of resource timing logic is provided thatalters the source that BR uses to retrieve resource timings. The twooptions for retrieving timings are from observed histories or explicitlyfrom admin defined times for operation execution. The default usesinformation from the observed histories, gathered from periodic polls.If the customer defines times explicitly, the customer can direct BR touse those times for a given resource. If activated, observation modecontinues and captures information, as well as running averages, andstandard deviations. The impact to this logic is to alter the source ofinformation for policy validation and formulation of recovery plan.

With respect to the historical observations, there may be astatistically meaningful set of observations to verify. The sample sizeshould be large enough so that a time range for each operation executioncan be calculated, with a sufficient confidence interval. The acceptablenumber of observations to qualify as statistically meaningful, and thedesired confidence interval are customer configurable using BR UI, butprovided as defaults in the BRMD entry for the resource. The defaultconfidence interval is 95%, in one example.

There are metrics from a resource that are employed by BR to enable andperform goal management. These include, for instance:

Metric Qualification Last observed recovery/restart time Inmilliseconds; or alternately specifying units to use in calculations Thekey factors and associated Captured at last observed recovery time, andcapturable values of the resource that affect at a point in time by BRrecovery time The key factors and associated Captured at last observedrecovery time, and capturable values of the resource that affect at apoint in time by BR other dependent resources' recovery times Observedtime interval from ‘start’ If there are various points in the resourcerecovery state to each ‘non-blocking’ state lifecycle at which itbecomes non-blocking to other resources which depend upon it, then:Observed time interval from ‘start’ state to each ‘non-blocking’ stateResource Consumption Information If the resource can provide informationabout its consumption, or the consumption of dependent resources, on aninterval basis, then BR will use this information in forming PSEs andclassifying timings. One example of this is: cpu, i/o, memory usageinformation that is available from zOS WLM for an aggregation ofprocesses/address spaces over a given interval.

There is also a set of information about the resource that isemployed—this information is provided as defaults in the BRMD entry forthe resource, but provided to the BR team in the form of best practicesinformation/defaults by the domain owners:

-   -   The operational state of the resource at which the observed        recovery time interval started.    -   The operational state of the resource at which the observed        recovery time interval ended.    -   The operational states of the resource at which point it can        unblock dependent resources (example: operational states at        which a DB2 could unblock new work from CICS, at which it could        allow processing of logs for transactions ongoing at time of        failure . . . ).    -   Values of statistical thresholds to indicate sufficient        observations for goal managing the resource (number of        observations, max standard deviations, confidence level).

In addition to the resources defined herein as part of the ITconfiguration that is managed, there are other resources, referred toherein as assessed resources. Assessed resources are present primarilyto provide observation data for PSE formation, and to understandimpact(s) on managed resources. They do not have a decomposed RTOassociated with them nor are they acted on for availability by BR.Assessed resources have the following characteristics, as examples:

-   -   Are present to collect observation data for PSE formation.    -   Are present to understand impacts on managed resources.    -   No decomposed RTO is associated with an assessed resource.    -   They are resources on which resources managed by BR depend upon,        but are not directly acted on for availability by BR.    -   They are resources removed (or not explicitly added) from the        actively monitored set of resources by the BR admin during RS        definition.    -   They are resources that BR does not try to recover and BR thus        will not invoke any preparatory or recovery operations on them.

Similarly, there are likely scenarios where a resource exists in acustomer environment that already has an alternative availabilitymanagement solution, and does not require BR for its availability.However, since other resources that are managed by BR may be dependenton them, they are observed and assessed in order to collect observationdata and understand their impacts on managed resources. Additionally,there may be resources that do not have alternative managementsolutions, but the customer simply does not want them managed by BR, butother managed resources are dependent upon them. They too are classifiedas assessed resources.

These assessed resources share many of the same characteristics ofmanaged resources, such as, for example:

-   -   They have an entry in the BRMD, depending on their use, and the        BRMD entry has an indication of assessed vs. managed.    -   The RS subscribes to state change notifications for assessed        resources (and possibly other notifiable properties).    -   Relationships between observed and managed resources are        possible (and likely).    -   BR monitors for lifecycle events on assessed resources in the        same manner as for managed resources.    -   Assessed resources can be added and/or removed from Recovery        Segments.    -   They can be used to contribute to the aggregated state of an RS.

Finally, there are a few restrictions that BR imposes upon assessedresources, in this embodiment:

-   -   Again, BR does not invoke any workflow operations on assessed        resources.    -   A resource that is shared between two Recovery Segments is not        categorized as an assessed resource in one RS and a managed        resource in the other. It is one or the other in the RS's, but        not both.

To facilitate the building of the customer's IT configuration,observations regarding the customer's environment are gathered andstored in an observation log. In particular, the observation log is usedto store observations gathered during runtime in customer environments,where each observation is a collection of various data points. They arecreated for each of the Recovery Segments that are in “observation”mode. These observations are used for numerous runtime andadministrative purposes in the BR environment. As examples theobservations are used:

-   -   To perform statistical analysis from the BR UI to form        characterizations of customers’ normal execution environments,        represented in BR as Pattern System Environments (PSE).    -   To classify operations on resources into these PSEs for purposes        of determining operation execution duration.    -   Help determine approximate path length of operations that are        pushed down from BR to the resources, and possibly to the        underlying instrumentation of each resource.    -   Help determine approximate path length of activities executed        within BPEL workflows.    -   Finally, the data collected via the observation is also used to        update the metadata associated with the resource (i.e., in the        BRMD table) where appropriate.

BR gathers observations during runtime when “observation mode” isenabled at the Recovery Segment level. There are two means for enablingobservation mode, as examples:

-   -   1. The BR UI allows the administrator to enable observation mode        at a Recovery Segment, which will change its “ObservationMode”        resource property to “True”, and to set the polling interval        (default=15 minutes). The Recovery Segment is defined in order        to allow observation mode, but a policy does not have to be        defined or activated for it.    -   2. Once a policy is defined though and subsequently activated,        observation mode is set for the Recovery Segment (due to the        data being used in managing and monitoring the customer's        environment). Thus, it is set automatically at policy        activation, if not already set explicitly by the administrator        (see 1 above) using the default polling interval (15 minutes).

The administrator may also disable observation mode for a RecoverySegment, which stops it from polling for data and creating subsequentobservation records for insertion in the log. However, the accumulatedobservation log is not deleted. In one example, an RS remains inobservation mode throughout its lifecycle. The UI displays theimplications of disabling observation mode.

In BR, the observations that are collected by BR during runtime can begrouped into two categories, as examples:

-   -   1. Periodic poll.    -   2. Workflow (includes workflow begin/end, and workflow activity        begin/end).

A periodic poll observation is a point-in-time snapshot of theconstituent resources in a Recovery Segment. Observation data points arecollected for those resources in the Recovery Segment(s) which haveassociated BR management data for any of the following reasons, asexamples:

-   -   1. Resource has RTO properties.    -   2. Resource has operations.    -   3. Resource participates in the aggregated state for the        Recovery Segment, in which it is contained.    -   4. Resource participates in any of the six types of pairing        rules.

The full value of these observations is derived for an RS when theyinclude data that has been gathered for its constituent resources, plusthe resources that those are dependent upon. In one embodiment, theadministrator is not forced to include all dependent resources whendefining a Recovery Segment, and even if that were the case, there isnothing that prevents them from deleting various dependent resources.When defining a Recovery Segment, the BR UI provides an option thatallows the customer to display the dependency graph for those resourcesalready in the Recovery Segment. This displays the topology from theseed node(s) in the Recovery Segment down to and including the dependentleaf nodes. The purpose of this capability is to give the customer theopportunity to display the dependent nodes and recommend that they beincluded in the Recovery Segment.

Preparatory and recovery workflows are built by the BR manager toachieve the customer requested RTO policy based on resource operationstimings. During active policy monitoring by the BR manager, measurementsof achieved time for operations are recorded in observations to the logand used to maintain the running statistical data on operation executiontimes. Observations written to the log may vary in the containedresource RTO metrics and operation execution timings.

Observations are also collected from any of the BPEL workflows createdby BR in the customer's environment. There is a standard template thateach BR BPEL workflow uses. As part of that template, observation datais captured at the start of, during, and at the completion of eachworkflow. Specifically, in one example, one observation is created atthe end of the workflow with data accumulated from completion of eachactivity. This information is used to gather timings for workflowexecution for use in creating subsequent workflows at time of failure.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, management of theBR environment is facilitated by real-time monitoring of theenvironment. Real-time data associated with business applications of theenvironment are monitored to provide information regarding theapplications. That information is then used to manage the environment.

Presently, monitoring of a computer system environment is performed byexisting products in a wide variety of ways. For example, there areautomation products which are triggered off issuance of messages orevents (e.g., ENF events within z/OS®). Additionally, there are periodicprocesses for gathering information on the status of a resource, such asthe system or subsystem monitoring performed by XCF of z/OS® forParallel Sysplex®. (Parallel Sysplex® is a registered trademark ofInternational Business Machines Corporation.) However, in each casethere fails to be an association of the status of resources to thecustomer business application in the context of the supporting overallIT environment, and there fails to be an open, extensible way forresources to surface through event changes in their state or criticalproperties.

Thus, one or more aspects of the present invention addresses the needfor maintaining relatively current information on, for instance,resources and operation execution times, and on the use of that datawhen resources report changes to the environment. In the context ofmanaging the IT environment for business application availability, abalance is struck between management of cached resource information andmanagement of environment change notification.

Business Resilience (BR) uses information about resources andrelationships actively during the processing of events, includingrecovery related events. BR also has fairly tight restrictions on theamount of time that can be spent in its own processing in order toproduce a meaningful recovery process. Excessive time may be measured inseconds, as the chances for achieving a goal (e.g., RTO) and the chancesfor preserving a consistent state of the environment are reduced asinternal processing time increases. As a result of this stringentrequirement, BR implements a cache of resource and relationship datathat also includes the properties about a resource that the BR designdepends on during recovery processing. The implementation of this cacheis in a set of database tables. BR relies on, for instance, the bufferpool capabilities of DB2® to maintain the information for read purposeswithout access to external storage for the data tables. In this manner,the BR implementation does not have to create a cache in storage.

Cached information is utilized in conjunction with explicit notificationof change events on resource state, resource properties and topology. BRsubscribes to topics supported by the underlying system services.Notification of events associated with those topics is provided byresources on state and property change. Additionally, notificationevents are provided on addition or deletion of resources orrelationships to the collection of resources BR has established as aRecovery Segment representing a customer business application.

Overview

Monitoring of the IT environment by the BR system takes place in supportof achieving the quantitative goals, such as a RTO. Two types ofmonitoring are utilized: explicit periodic requesting of resource dataand subscription to resource services, which provide event notificationof changes to resource data. Two mechanisms are utilized in order toinsure changes in resource data are detected. The event mechanism mayhave unbounded delays or errors which preclude delivery of notificationregarding resource data change. Making periodic requests for resourcedata further provides the needed mechanism for real-time analysis ofexpected delays in request/response processing for resource data and inevent delivery.

In one implementation, monitoring may be initiated at one of two pointsin time. The BR system supports a form of resource data gathering termedobservation mode during which resource data is gathered, but BRmanagement to an availability goal is not performed. Observation modeuses the explicit periodic requesting of resource data, termed periodicpoll. Processing responses to explicit requests for resource data (seeResponse to Periodic Poll Observation below) includes updating a cacheof resource data, evaluating resources, RS(s) and RG(s) for state changeand logging returned resource data. Enabling observation mode (seeActivate Observation mode for RS below) may be performed before thepoint in time when active management to an availability goal isrequested of the BR system. When active management to an availabilitygoal is requested of the BR system (see RS Monitoring ofResource(s)—Activate Time below), if observation mode has not previouslybeen activated, observation mode is entered causing periodic requestsfor resource data to begin. In addition to periodic requests forresource data, when the BR system begins active management of a goal,such as an availability goal, the BR system subscribes to eventnotification services supported by resources associated with the RS.Through subscriptions to events associated with resource data, the BRsystem should be provided direct notification by the resourcerepresentation of changes to resource data (see RS MonitoringNotification below).

Subscriptions for notification to the BR system of changes in resourcedata is discontinued when the RS is no longer managed to a goal (seeDeactivate RS for Monitoring below). Observation mode may bediscontinued if the RS is not being managed to a goal (see DeactivateObservation Mode for RS below).

When resources or relationships are deleted from the IT environment andare part of a RS, resource data becomes no longer requested by theperiodic poll process and subscriptions are removed from event servicesproviding notification of alterations in resource data. When resourcesare added to the IT environment, the BR administrator is advised of thechange as it may be desirable to add resources to an RS (see TopologyLifecycle Change Notification below).

The monitoring process maintains a cache of resource data to be used byother aspects of the BR system (see Response to Periodic PollObservation below). The cache includes, for example, data on resourcestate, resource property values, resource operation execution durationtimes and data regarding processor time, processor memory usage and I/Orequests made by the resource. The set of resource data which isgathered by periodic poll and for which event subscriptions areinitiated (see RS Monitoring Prep below) is created either whenobservation mode is initiated or when the RS becomes actively monitoredfor availability goal achievement. Resource state is always monitored,in one example, as are operation execution duration times for eachoperation potentially utilized by the BR system. Resource propertyvalues are monitored if they contributed to the composed state of aresource or the aggregated state of a RS or RG. Resource property valuesare also monitored if they are utilized in evaluating pairing triggerconditions.

As changes to resource data are received, either through the periodicpoll process or through event notification reflecting change in resourcedata, an evaluation is made regarding any alterations to resource state,RS state or RG state. If changes to resource data result in a resourceor RS becoming failed or degraded, as assessed based on the compositestate of the resource or aggregated state of the RS or RG, errordetection processing is initiated to begin the flow for determining whatrecovery actions should be taken.

The interval on which periodic poll requests for resource data areinitiated may be altered by the customer (see Change Periodic PokeInterval below).

In accordance with one or more aspects of the present invention, thefollowing functionality is provided, as examples:

1) Periodic update of cached information on resources associated withserving a business application:

Since a cache is by nature a copy of the information, the coherence isto be maintained at a level that is reasonable to the use of the data.In some cases, a cached copy of the data is sufficient, and in othercases, it is not the preferred method. In all cases, the cache ismaintained by BR monitoring and BR administrative flows. The periodicobservations that BR uses also gathers information on the required cacheupdates in an asynchronous, phased manner, in one example.

An example of when a cache can be used is for values of properties thatare used in the BR state aggregation for RS, or in specification oftriggers in determining operational dependency ordering. These will beas old as potentially the last (undelivered) notification, since thereis unbounded delay on the messaging infrastructure supported by theunderlying system services.

A case of where cached data is not preferred is in the assessment ofstate for resources when a recovery action is about to be formulated. Inthis case, BR makes an attempt to distribute asynchronous queries togather state that is more recent than the last processed event. In thelatter case, using only cached data is insufficient, and an unboundeddelay on the messaging infrastructure can result in unpredictablecoherency of the information used to recommend a recovery action. Forexample, if a resource transitioned to an available state, and themessage was not delivered in the timeframe that BR has to suggest arecovery process, then a process restarting the resource may berecommended, even though the resource became available. However, ifthere is no response to an asynchronous query for a given resource, BRresorts to its cached state and does not wait excessively for a responsefrom a query operation.

BR sends a query, during each polling interval, to the set of resourcesmanaged for a given RS to collect, for example, state, RTO metrics,operation execution timings, properties associated with 1 st level stateaggregation rules and properties associated with triggers for pairingrules. Roundtrip times and clock variations are also recorded. Part ofthe information collected is recorded into a log and part is used toupdate the BR management data maintained in DB2® tables and cached inDB2® buffer pools.

2) Use of periodic data refresh to maintain running average of resourceoperation execution duration time:

BR uses observed resource information to create representations ofcustomer IT environments referred to as Pattern System Environments.Observed resource operation execution duration times are related toPSE(s) and used to formulate statistics on operation execution times.During ongoing runtime execution, BR maintains a running average ofresource operation execution times. Statistics from logs of observationsare used as a base against which updates are made from data returned byresources in response to periodic polling. Running averages foroperation execution times are maintained by BR in a set of DB2® tables,which collectively relate resources to the business applications theysupport and operation execution times for those resources within thecontext of a customer environment represented as a PSE. The runningaverage of operation execution time for resources is utilized invalidating customer policy for business application availability.

3) Use of periodic data refresh in evaluating Redundancy Group state:

A Redundancy Group is a BR representation of a set of functionallyequivalent resources which have an associated aggregated state. Thestate of a Redundancy Group is updated when BR gathers information onresources either on a periodic basis or in response to a resource eventreflecting an outage. The aggregated state of a Redundancy Group can bespecified by a customer as a function of the state and property valuesof associated resources. The state of a Redundancy Group can be used bycustomers to affect the state of a Recovery Segment representing abusiness application. State of a Redundancy Group can also be used bycustomers in determining which pairing information is currently validthrough trigger specifications.

4) Monitoring for resource state change and use of cached data inassessing resource aggregated state:

When state change notification for a resource is received, an assessmentis performed based on, for instance, the administrative state of theRecovery Segment (RS), the state of the current policy for the RS, therules for composed state of the resource and pairing information. If theresource is part of a RS for which there is an active BR policygoverning availability management, change in resource state may warrantinitiation of error processing. The composed state of the resource isevaluated to determine if it has become degraded or unavailable. If aresource changes state, as evaluated by BR for availability purposes,the associated RS may also change state or another resource relatedthrough a pairing may change state. Property/values associated withresources and state associated with resources are used from the BR cacheto evaluate trigger conditions on pairings and composed state of otherresources, and aggregated state of Redundancy Groups and RecoverySegments.

5) Monitoring for resource property change and use of cached data inassessing resource state:

In a manner analogous to processing for resource state change, resourceproperty event notification initiates an assessment of resource composedstate. Notification of property and related value is received by BR as aresult of subscription. Notification results in update of the BR cachefor the altered resource property and value. Assessment of composedstate of the resource is performed. If the resource state, as viewed byBR for availability management changes, an assessment of changes toother resources or to the associated RS(s) is performed by BR. As withresource state change, changes in property/value for a resource mayresult in initiation of error processing through alteration of resourcestate, Redundancy Group state and ultimately Recovery Segment state.

6) Monitoring for resource topology change and alteration of resource tobusiness application association:

BR subscribes for monitoring and change notification for these lifecyclechanges, as examples:

-   -   Resources added to the environment;    -   Resources deleted from the environment;    -   Relationships added to the environment; and    -   Relationships deleted from the environment.

The addition of resources or relationships in the environment does notresult in BR automatically changing the scope of any RS. The BRadministrator is notified and may select to include the resource orrelationship information into a RS. In so doing, the BR administratormay choose to build composed state or pairing information or alter RSand RG aggregated state processing.

In another implementation, a BR function enabling automatic addition ofselected resources and relationships to a RS based on a set of filterrules is possible. Definition of which resources and relationshipsshould automatically be added to a RS and what if any composed state andpairing information should automatically be added is possible.

If the environment change reflects deletion of a resource, BR removesthe resource from the RS and from related pairing information so as toprevent the removed resource from causing inappropriate evaluation ofstate for other resources. A resource being deleted implies it is nolonger part of the IT environment. That is quite different from theresource being failed or degraded. It is gone and should not impact thestate of other resources including the Recovery Segment. Notification isprovided to the BR administrator and copies of the resource information,related metadata and pairing information are preserved for potential useby the BR administrator. Once deletion of the resource is confirmed bythe BR administrator, copies of information related to the deletedresource are removed from BR, in one embodiment.

If the environment change reflects deletion of a relationship, BRremoves any pairing information derived from the relationship andprovides BR administrator notification. A temporary copy of the removedpairing information is preserved until the BR administrator confirmsdeletion of the relationship.

Example of Preconditioning the BR Environment for Monitoring

Prior to the detection of runtime errors, there are a number ofBR-specific configuration steps performed. This list represents oneexample of a high-level view of those preconditions, although they arenot necessarily executed in this order:

-   -   A Recovery Segment has been defined and deployed. The Recovery        Segment includes various resources, relationships between those        resources, topologies of resources and relationships, and        composite resources (i.e., Redundancy Group or even other        Recovery Segments).    -   The Recovery Segment has been associated with an instantiated        and deployed BR Manager for monitoring and management. This        association is accomplished in the form of a ‘manages’        relationship.    -   Relationships in the form of ‘manages’ relationships have been        established between the Recovery Segment and its constituent        resources.    -   Pairing rules have been assigned to the resources and        relationships through interaction with the BR UI and customized        to the customer's particular environment (e.g., impact rules for        aggregated states for the RS, RG, etc.).    -   A goal policy has been defined and validated for the Recovery        Segment through interactions with the BR UI.    -   Observation mode for the resources in the Recovery Segment has        been initiated either by the customer or as a result of policy        validation.    -   The environment has been prepared as a result of that goal        policy via policy validation and the possible creation and        execution of a preparatory workflow.    -   The goal policy has been activated for monitoring by BR.

The underlying framework that BR relies upon provides a mechanism forsubscribing to specific events and subsequently getting notified whenthose events occur. In one implementation, this may be via anotification service. The types of events that can be subscribed to arestate change events and lifecycle events, as examples. State changeevents result when a property of a resource changes, and lifecycleevents occur with either the creation and/or deletion of a resourceinstance. This subscription/notification process is the basis for errordetection by BR. Notifications are surfaced to the subscriber, and thesubscribers for BR are, for instance, the Recovery Segment or BRmanager.

As a result of the preconditions leading up to runtime, the followingsubscriptions have taken place (again not necessarily in this order), inone embodiment:

-   -   1. The BRM has subscribed to runtime state change events for the        RS (as a result of the Recovery Segment getting associated with        that particular BRM).    -   2. Once a RS is defined, instantiated and has relationships        defined with its constituent resources, lifecycle changes to the        topologies in the RS are to be monitored. For example, changes,        such as the addition of a relationship between a resource in the        RS and related resource, may be an indication that the customer        may need to (or want to) change the definition of the RS to        include new resources or possibly change the policy associated        with the Recovery Segment. It is for this reason that the        Recovery Segment has subscribed to lifecycle changes for the        resources in the Recovery Segment. Note that a lifecycle change        is different than an operational state change. Lifecycle events        result when new resources are instantiated or explicitly        destroyed.    -   3. Once a policy is activated for monitoring, the operational        state of the resources in the Recovery Segment are also        monitored. So, the Recovery Segment has subscribed to the state        change events for those constituent resources.    -   4. Also, as a result of policy activation, the Recovery Segment        has subscribed to state change events for any properties of its        resources that are a RTO metric.    -   5. The Recovery Segment has subscribed to state change events on        those properties that are involved in any of the pairing rules        applied during configuration time.

A conceptual view of the above for a simple Recovery Segment with fiveconstituent resources is depicted in FIG. 9.

-   -   1. Line 900 between the BR Manager 902 and the Recovery Segment        904 represents a state change subscription between BRM 902 and        RS 904.    -   2. Line 906 between Recovery Segment 904 and the resource        lifecycle services 908 represents the lifecycle change        subscription for resources in the Recovery Segment.    -   3. Lines 910 between Recovery Segment 904 and its constituent        resources 912 represent the state change subscriptions between        the RS and those resources. There is at least one subscription        between the RS and each resource for operational state change        events, but there might be others as well based on items 4 and 5        above.

As used herein, lifecycle service refers to the function which providesnotification of a resource being created or destroyed. It may bedifferent for different resources. For example, it might be a softwareroutine which runs when a customer adds or removes a resource definitionfrom their CMDB. It could be a software routine which runs when a newsubsystem, like CICS® or DB2®, is installed or when a new instance ofthe subsystem is defined through creation of a new start procedure insys1.proclib. It could be a software routine which runs when a newstorage subsystem is installed to define the storage subsystem hardwareconfiguration and validate correct installation and execution of the newhardware. All of these are providing notification that a new instance ofa component/resource has become available in the IT environment. In asimilar way, when a component/resource is removed from the ITenvironment the lifecycle service provides notification. For example, ifa rack of x86 servers is to be replaced, the old instances of theservers are removed. The software providing notification of the removalcould again be running when the customer's CMDB is updated. Or, it wouldbe run when the customer's hardware inventory is updated. All of theseare lifecycle services. For relationships, there are similar softwareroutines which are the focal point for creation or removal of newrelationship instances and these are lifecycle services forrelationships. For example, when a new JDBC connector is defined forsoftware using a database, a new relationship is created between thesoftware and the database.

Now that BR has subscribed for the various state and lifecycle changeevents for the resources under its management, it waits and listens fora notification for anything that is has subscribed to. The lifecycleruntime state of the Recovery Segment at this point in time isAvailable.

Activate Observation Mode for RS

Activate Observation Mode initializes the mode where the RS initiatesperiodic polls to collect information used in forming systemenvironments, as well as to perform ongoing collection of keyinformation used to keep the BRMD and BRRD current. Once activated,observations are gathered until the administrator explicitly stops thepoll. Observation mode is activated by the BR Administrator or by policyvalidation for the first policy to be validated for the RS, if it hasnot been set by the administrator prior to that time. Note thatactivation of observation mode does not cause the RS to subscribe toresource state, resource property or resource lifecycle changes.Therefore, deactivation of observation mode does not unsubscribe.

One embodiment of the logic to activate observation mode for a RS isdescribed with reference to FIG. 10. As one example, the RS component ofthe BR performs this logic.

Referring to FIG. 10, the periodic poll interval desired by the BRadministrator is established through the UI, STEP 1000. The specifiedinterval is validated including, for instance:

-   -   Interval greater than 0;    -   Interval larger than 15 minutes yields a warning;    -   If previous cycles have had less than 100% response to batch        requests (RS.Pct_Resp), lowering the interval yields a warning;    -   If previous cycles have had less than 100% response from all RS        related resources (RS.Poll_Resp_Pct), lowering the interval        yields a warning;    -   Interval less than the longest time for a resource to respond        (RS.Level_T2_interval_max), yields a warning.

When an acceptable periodic poll interval has not been requested,INQUIRY 1002, processing returns to STEP 1000. Otherwise, observationmode for the RS is indicated (RS.ObsMode=Yes), STEP 1004, and thedesired interval is saved with the RS (RS.PokeInterval), STEP 1006.

Statistics for the polling cycle are initialized. For example, the totalnumber of poll cycles with the specified interval is set to zero(RS.Tot_Polls), STEP 1008, the percent of responses for batch requestsis set to zero (RS.Pct_Resp), STEP 1010, and the percent of resourcesresponding in a polling cycle is set to zero (RS.Poll_Resp_Pct), STEP1012.

Preparation for polling of resources is invoked (e.g., RS MonitoringPrep), STEP 1014, to create the list of resources and resource data tobe retrieved on each polling cycle, as described below. Moreover,processing to periodically present requests to resources for data isalso invoked (e.g., Initiate Periodic Poll Observation), STEP 1016, asdescribed below.

RS Monitoring Prep

As previously indicated, activate observation mode invokes RS monitoringprep (as well as RS monitoring of Resources), an example of which isdescribed with reference to FIGS. 11A-11B. In one embodiment, this logicis performed by the RS component of the BR system.

A list of resource data for RS observation mode or active monitoring iscreated in this routine. It is invoked when observation mode is madeactive, as described above, or when the RS transitions to activemonitoring of resources to achieve the availability policy, as describedbelow. This routine builds the list of resource data in the RS(RS.BRAD_List) under the constraint that each piece of resource data isto be requested separately. In another implementation where support isprovided by the resource for retrieving multiple data in a singlerequest, this routine would build the list so groups of data requests tothe same resource would be presented in a single resource access.Resource data may include, for example: resource state, resourceoperations or resource property data required for evaluation of pairingtriggers, RS evaluation of RTO metrics or RG and RS state evaluation.

Referring to FIG. 11A, the resource topology associated with the RS isretrieved from the RS related topology table, STEP 1100. One or moreDAG(s) are constructed for the resources represented in the topology,STEP 1102. DAG(s) are processed from the root to the leaf nodesresulting in entries in the resource data list being in root to leaforder. Subscriptions for monitoring of resources are built in the orderof resource data, such that subscriptions are processed from root toleaf node.

When each constructed DAG has been processed, STEP 1104, this routineends. Each resource in a DAG is processed navigating the DAG from theroot to leaf node(s), STEP 1106. If the resource under evaluation hasalready been processed, INQUIRY 1108, the next resource in the DAG isevaluated, STEP 1106. Otherwise, the BRMD is retrieved for the resource,STEP 1110, and the resource and a request for the resource state data isadded to the list of resource data required by the RS, STEP 1112, andflagged as requiring event subscription.

For the resource under evaluation, operation table entries are retrievedthrough use of the BRMD, STEP 1114. For each operation table entry, STEP1116 (FIG. 11B), the resource and resource operation are added to thelist of resource data needed, STEP 1118, and flagged as not requiringevent subscription.

Subsequent to processing the retrieved operation table entries, theproperties associated with the resource under evaluation are retrievedthrough use of the BRMD, as one example, STEP 1120. For each propertytable entry retrieved, STEP 1122, a determination is made regarding RSrequirements for data on the property, INQUIRY 1124. A set of flags inthe property table indicate if the property/value is needed for currencyevaluation of one of the pairing types or needed for gathering RTOmetrics or needed for RG or RS state evaluation. As examples:

Needed for RG evaluation  NEEDED_RG_TRIGGER_Y Needed for pairing trigger NEEDED_IMPACT_Y  NEEDED_FAILURE_Y  NEEDED_CONSTRAINT_Y NEEDED_OPEFFECT_Y  NEEDED_PREPEFFECT_Y  NEEED_COLLOCATION_Y Needed forRS state evaluation  NEEDED_LEVEL1_AGGREATION_Y Needed for RTO metrics NEEDED_RTO_Y

If not, INQUIRY 1124, the next property is evaluated, STEP 1122.Otherwise, the resource and property are added to the list of resourcedata required by the RS, STEP 1126, and flagged as requiring eventsubscription. When all resource property table entries have beenprocessed, the next resource is evaluated, STEP 1106 (FIG. 11A). Whenall of the resources in the DAG have been processed, STEP 1106, the nextDAG is selected, if any.

Initiate Periodic Poll Observation

In addition to RS monitoring prep, an initiate periodic poll observationroutine is also invoked by activate observation mode. With this routine,in each polling interval, BR sends a query to the set of resourcesmanaged for a given RS to collect, for instance, state, RTO metrics,operation execution timings, properties associated with evaluation ofresource composed state and properties associated with triggers forpairing. A part of the information collected is used to update the BRMDand BRRD information. Collected data may be recorded in a log for use bytools evaluating the BR environment.

In one implementation the process to request data from resources runsonly when invoked by this routine. Setting of a timer to cause thisroutine to run the next cycle is performed by this routine. Thefollowing flow represents such an implementation.

In another implementation, one in which BRAD processing is employed todynamically adjust resource data collection controls, the initialinvocation of the BRAD process is all that is required. Subsequentiterations of the periodic poll process and detection of requests toterminate the periodic poll process are incorporated into the BRADlogic.

One embodiment of the initiate periodic poll observation is describedwith reference to FIG. 12. As an example, the RS component of the BRperforms this logic.

Referring to FIG. 12, if periodic polling for data is to be stopped,INQUIRY 1200, processing ends. Otherwise, a timer is set to expire atthe conclusion of a time interval equal to the periodic poll intervalwith control to be given to this routine, STEP 1202. The list ofresource data recorded into the RS from previous processing of the RSMonitoring Prep routine, described above, is used to invoke services fordelivering requests to resources for data and gathering response datafrom resources, STEP 1204. In one implementation, this may be the BRasynchronous distribution (BRAD) mechanism. In another example, it maybe a routine which serially invokes the resource provided interface toretrieve each piece of data in the BRAD_List. An alternativeimplementation may spawn a thread for each data item in the BRAD_Listassigning each thread one of the data requests.

Response to Periodic Poll Observation

Response(s) received from a periodic poll observation are processed.Property values and resource state may be updated. If a resource stateis not available, a resource outage may be detected causing errordetection processing to be initiated.

One embodiment of the logic to process received responses is describedwith reference to FIGS. 13A-13G. As an example, the RS performs thislogic.

Referring to FIG. 13A, a temporary list of resources having reported orbeen evaluated as requiring error processing is set to null, STEP 1300.Each resource data item present in the response message is processed,STEP 1302. The BRMD for the resource being processed is retrieved, STEP1304.

If the response data for the resource in the periodic poll response isnull, INQUIRY 1306, the count of occurrences when the resource failed toprovide a response is incremented, STEP 1308, and the next resource datain the response message is processed, STEP 1302.

Otherwise, INQUIRY 1306, if the resource data is state data, INQUIRY1310, a comparison to the current BRMD resource state is made. If theresource state is unchanged, INQUIRY 1312, the next resource data isprocessed, STEP 1302. Otherwise, the BRMD resource state is updated,STEP 1314 (FIG. 13B), and a determination is made if the state isavailable, STEP 1316. If the resource state is available, the nextresource data is processed, STEP 1302 (FIG. 13A). Otherwise, theresource having a non-available state is added to the error detect listof resources, STEP 1318 (FIG. 13B), and processing continues at STEP1302 (FIG. 13A).

Returning to INQUIRY 1310, if the resource data is not state data, butis property data, INQUIRY 1320 (FIG. 13C), the resource property tableentry is retrieved, STEP 1322, and updated, STEP 1324. If the resourceproperty data is required for RG evaluation, INQUIRY 1326 (FIG. 13D),related RG(s) are evaluated, STEP 1327. Otherwise, or after RGevaluation is performed, it is determined if the property data is neededfor resource state evaluation, INQUIRY 1328. If not, the next resourcedata is processed, STEP 1302 (FIG. 13A). Otherwise, INQUIRY 1328,evaluation of resource state is performed, STEP 1330. If the evaluatedresource state is the same as the existing BRMD value, INQUIRY 1332, thenext resource data is processed, STEP 1302 (FIG. 13A). Otherwise,INQUIRY 1332 (FIG. 13D), processing of changed resource state isperformed, STEPs 1314-1318 (FIG. 13B), before the next resource data isprocessed, STEP 1302 (FIG. 13A).

Returning to INQUIRY 1320 (FIG. 13C), if the resource data is notproperty data, but is operation data, INQUIRY 1334 (FIG. 13E), theresource operation table entry is retrieved, STEP 1336. If the lastexecution time for the operation recorded in the operation table entryis the same as the operation execution time in the response message,INQUIRY 1338, the next resource data is processed, STEP 1302 (FIG. 13A).Otherwise, INQUIRY 1338 (FIG. 13E), the last operation execution time isupdated in the operation table entry, STEP 1340, and the operationexecution count is incremented by one, STEP 1342. The average andstandard deviation for operation execution is calculated and recorded inthe operation table entry, STEP 1344. The count of invocations for theinstrumentation for the operation is incremented, STEP 1346, and therunning average and standard deviation for instrumentation executiontime is updated in the operation table, STEP 1348.

If there exists a PSE which matches the operation execution time,INQUIRY 1350 (FIG. 13F), the PSE operation table entry is retrieved,STEP 1352. The count of operation execution events is incremented in thePSE operation table entry, STEP 1354, and the running average andstandard deviation of operation execution time is updated in the PSEoperation table entry, STEP 1356. On completion of PSE operationexecution data, the next resource data is processed, STEP 1302 (FIG.13A).

Returning to INQUIRY 1334 (FIG. 13E), if the resource data is notoperation data, but is WLM data, INQUIRY 1360 (FIG. 13G), the BRMD WLMdata is updated, STEP 1362. If there exists a PSE which matches theobservation time, INQUIRY 1364, the PSE resource table is retrieved,STEP 1366, and the WLM data associated with the PSE resource table isupdated, STEP 1368. Subsequently, or if no PSE matching the observationtime or if the resource data is not WLM data, the next resource data isprocessed, STEP 1302 (FIG. 13A).

Returning to STEP 1302, when the resource data has been processed, eacherror detect list entry recorded during processing, STEP 1372, is usedto invoke error detect processing (e.g., asynchronously), STEP 1374.When each of the error detect list entries is processed, the response toperiodic poll observation is complete.

Topology Lifecycle Change Notification

One example of a lifecycle change notification is described withreference to FIGS. 14A-14C. As one example, this logic is performed bythe RS component of the BR system.

In one example, BR subscribes to lifecycle service for monitoring andchange notification of: resources added to the environment; resourcesdeleted from the environment; relationships added to the environment;and relationships deleted from the environment.

This logic is initiated by the Recovery Segment initially subscribing tothe four lifecycle change events and subsequently receiving notificationof such a change.

Referring to FIG. 14A, if resources or relationships have been added tothe BR environment, INQUIRY 1400, notification is sent to the BRadministrator via, for instance, the mailbox, STEP 1402. The BRadministrator, on review of the changed environment, may choose tomodify the BR environment through changes to existing RS(s) or formationof new RS(s). In another implementation, filters on resource type andresource property could be applied to events providing notification ofresource or relationship additions. For example, an x86 server of aparticular configuration could be matched to a filter, or a storagevolume of a specified type and naming convention could be matched to afilter. If the added resource or relationship matched the filter for anRS, processing could be performed to add the resource or relationshipalong with best practices for pairings to the RS.

If a resource or relationship has been removed from the BR environment,INQUIRY 1400, monitoring of deleted items may be discontinued andupdates are made to BR tables to reflect the deletion. For each resourcedata item as reflected in the RS.BRAD_List, (e.g., built during RSmonitoring prep, described herein), STEP 1404, if the resource data itemhas been subscribed to based on indicator settings in the entry,subscription for event notification is terminated through, for instance,invocation of system services, STEP 1406. Further, the entry is removedfrom the RS.BRAD_List, STEP 1408, which terminates subsequent periodicpoll cycle requests for the resource data.

Subsequent to processing the BRAD_List entries, flow continues at STEP1410. At STEP 1410, BRRD entries, where the relationship is representedor where the deleted resource participates as Resource 1 or Resource 2,are deleted and inserted into a data structure of pending deletions,STEP 1412. As one example, the deleted data is recorded in a “deletesto_process” external storage location accessible by the BR runtime andthe BR administrator. In one implementation, the “deletes_to_Process”store is a DB2® table. Other implementations may utilize a file systemstore or a log, such as the BR activity log.

Deleted resources are removed from any RG table entries, STEP 1414, andthose modified RG table entries are recorded in the structure of pendingdeletions, STEP 1416. The BRMD of a deleted resource is removed, STEP1418, and recorded in the structure of pending deletions, STEP 1420(FIG. 14B).

Pairing(s) in the BRRD, where data related to the deleted resource isreferenced in triggers (BRRD.TRIGGER), are updated to remove referencesto the deleted resource data, STEP 1422. Updated BRRD entries arerecorded in the structure of pending deletions, STEP 1424. RG tableentries where the deleted resource is referenced in RG state(RG.STATE_RULE) are updated to remove references to the deleted resourcedata, STEP 1426. Updated RG entries are recorded in the structure ofpending deletions, STEP 1428. RS table entries where the deletedresource is referenced in the RS state (RS.STATE_RULE) are updated toremove references to the deleted resource data, STEP 1430. Updated RSentries are recorded in the structure of pending deletions, STEP 1432.

Mailbox notification is sent to the BR Administrator, STEP 1434,requesting confirmation of resources and relationship for which thereexists pending delete processing.

When the BR Administrator receives the mailbox notification and hasinitiated processing of pending deletes, recorded data from the table ofpending deletions is presented for confirmation, STEP 1440 (FIG. 14C).On acknowledging delete processing for resources and relationship,pending delete table entries are removed, STEP 1442.

Change Periodic Poke Interval

The interval at which the RS initiates a poll for query of informationcan be altered. The change takes affect on the next poll, and the scopeof the change is for a RS. Processing is initiated through the UI by theBR administrator.

Note, in one implementation, historical information on the periodic pollprocess may be presented to the BR administrator. Historical informationmay include changes made to the number of resources in a batch, numberof BRAD responses and number of resources responding for previous pollcycles. Trend data showing the effects of dynamic changes to theperiodic poll control mechanisms may be presented to assist the BRadministrator in setting a new periodic poll interval. Periodic pollcontrol mechanisms include, for example: initiation of requests toprevious poll cycle non responsive resources first, number of concurrentrequests for resource data, number of requests in a batch, and durationof the periodic poll interval.

One embodiment of the logic to change the periodic poke interval isdescribed with reference to FIG. 15. As one example, this logic isperformed by the RS.

Referring to FIG. 15, data related to the current periodic poll intervalis presented to the BR Administrator through the UI, STEP 1500. Data mayinclude, for instance: the current periodic poll interval, the totalnumber of poll cycles that have been completed with the current periodicpoll interval, the percentage of responses which have been received togroups of requests for resource data, the percentage of resourcesresponding in a poll cycle to requests for data, and the longest timeinterval from a request for resource data to the corresponding response.Through the UI, the BR Administrator specifies a desired periodic pollinterval, STEP 1502. The specified interval is evaluated using the samecriteria as when observation mode was initiated, as described above.

If the specified interval is not acceptable, INQUIRY 1504, UIinteraction continues, STEP 1500. Otherwise, the desired interval valueis used to update the RS periodic poll interval, STEP 1506. Statisticsregarding the current periodic poll interval are reset, STEP 1508,including, for instance, setting to zero: total number of poll cycleswith this interval, percent of responses which have been received togroups of requests for resource data, and the percentage of resourcesresponding in a poll cycle to requests for data. Processing completeswith use of the modified periodic poll interval picked up on the nextcycle of the periodic poll process in the Initiate Periodic PollObservation routine described above.

Deactivate Observation Mode for RS

Observation mode for the RS can be stopped to prevent further periodicpolls from occurring until reactivation of observation mode. The BRAdministrator explicitly invokes this operation, in one example.

One embodiment of the logic to deactivate observation mode is describedwith reference to FIG. 16. As one example, this logic is performed byRS.

Referring to FIG. 16, if the RS is not currently in observation mode,INQUIRY 1600, an error message is issued, STEP 1602. Otherwise, the RSis indicated to not currently be in observation mode, STEP 1604.Further, an indicator, checked by the periodic polling process, is setto cause periodic polling to end (RS.StopPoke), STEP 1606. Processingends with further shutdown of the periodic poll process completed by theInitiate Periodic Poll Observation process.

RS Monitoring of Resource(S)—Activate Time

This flow is invoked from, for instance, activate policy (or in anotherembodiment, from another routine or independently), and initiatessubscriptions to resources that have not already been subscribed to bythis RS. Input to this routine includes the RS table data reflecting theresources associated with the RS. Some resources associated with the RSmay have been subscribed to by the RS as a result of preparing theenvironment for meeting the specified policy goal. Requests to subscribeto resources are processed, for instance, in an order determined by theone or more DAG(s) reflecting relationships among resources in the RS.Processing of resource subscriptions proceeds from the root of the DAGto the leaf nodes, in one example.

One embodiment of the logic for RS monitoring of resources is describedwith reference to FIG. 17. As an example, the RS performs this logic.

Referring to FIG. 17, the RS administrative state is to be one ofActiveMonitoring, MonitoringPrepared, or DeactivateMonitoring, STEP1700. If the RS is not in one of those administrative states, an errormessage is issued, STEP 1702, and processing ends. Otherwise, the RSMonitoring Prep routine is invoked, STEP 1704, to build the list ofresource data used to support RS.

On return from building the list of resource data, an index forprocessing subscriptions is initialized to one, STEP 1706. If allsubscriptions have been processed, INQUIRY 1708, the RS administrativestate is updated to ActiveMonitoring, STEP 1710. Further, the topologytable entry for each resource is indicated as having been subscribed to,STEP 1712, and processing ends. Otherwise, INQUIRY 1708, if the numberof remaining subscriptions to be issued is less than 50, INQUIRY 1714,the number of subscriptions to issue is set to the remaining count forthe RS, STEP 1716. If the number of subscriptions remaining to be issuedis greater than 51, INQUIRY 1714, the number of subscriptions for thiscycle is set to 50, STEP 1718.

Subsequent to setting the number of subscriptions, subscriptions forresource data as reflected in the RS (RS.BRAD_List) are processed fromthe current index for the number to be done in this cycle, STEP 1720.The processing includes, for instance, invoking system services whichcause the RS Monitoring Notification routine, described below, to begiven control on change to the subscribed resource data. TheSUBSCRIBED_TO1 indicator is set in the topology table for the resource.The index for the current processing of RS resource data subscriptionsis updated for the number of subscriptions processed in this cycle, STEP1722, and the need for another cycle is evaluated, INQUIRY 1708.

RS Monitoring Notification

One embodiment of the logic for RS monitoring notification is describedwith reference to FIGS. 18A-18B. As an example, this logic is performedby the RS component of the BR system.

When resource data change notifications are received at the RecoverySegment, they are assessed based on metadata associated with theproperty for that resource. Error detection is initiated at the RecoverySegment when a subscribed to resource publishes a state changenotification or notification of change in a property value which altersthe composed state of resources to not be available and the aggregatedstate of the RS to be unavailable or degraded.

Referring to FIG. 18A, the BRMD of the resource is retrieved based onidentification of the resource in the notification, STEP 1800. If thenotification is for a property which is needed for pairing or RTO dataprocessing, INQUIRY 1802, the associated property table entry for theresource is retrieved, STEP 1804, (in one implementation, the sameproperty table flags are used as with INQUIRY 1224 (FIG. 12B)). Theproperty table is updated with the property value provided in thenotification, STEP 1806. Further, the settings of flags associated withthe property table entry are tested to determine if an evaluation of RGstate is required, INQUIRY 1808. If true, the RG is evaluated, STEP1810, and processing continues with INQUIRY 1812 (FIG. 18B). If false,processing skips the RG evaluation and continues at INQUIRY 1812.

At INQUIRY 1812, if the property is needed for evaluation of resourcestate, and if the administrative state of the RS is “Active Monitoring”,INQUIRY 1814, the state of the resource is evaluated, STEP 1816. TheBRMD of the resource is updated with the evaluated state, STEP 1818, andthe state of the resource is tested for being in an “Available” state,INQUIRY 1820. If the resource is not in an available state, error detectprocessing is initiated, STEP 1822. Thereafter, or if the resource stateis available, the notification event is logged along with recording ofactions taken in processing the event notification, STEP 1824, beforeprocessing ends.

Returning to INQUIRIES 1812 and 1814, if either evaluates false,processing continues at STEP 1824.

Deactivate RS for Monitoring

As described above, activation of monitoring of resources by a RecoverySegment results in subscriptions for notification events related tochanges in resource state, property, operation and lifecycle.

Deactivate monitoring for a RS unsubscribes to the set of resources itmanages, and leaves the environment ‘prepared’. An administrator may berequired to deactivate the RS for monitoring if changes to the RS arefound to be disruptive to ongoing operations. For example, if resourcesare added to a RS which alter the preparatory actions required and thosepreparatory operations cannot be performed while the IT resourcescontinue to provide service to the business applications represented bythe RS, RS monitoring is deactivated.

One embodiment of the logic to deactivate RS for monitoring is describedwith reference to FIG. 19. As an example, the RS performs this logic.

Referring to FIG. 19, deactivate for RS monitoring can be performed ifthe runtime state of the RS is one of ActiveMonitoring, Failed orRecoveryFailed, INQUIRY 1900. Otherwise, an error message is issued,STEP 1902, and processing ends.

If the runtime state is in an allowed state, the RS is indicated as notbeing in observation mode, STEP 1904, and an indication to stop periodicpoll processing is set, STEP 1906.

The list of resource data being monitored is used to build, forinstance, one or more DAG(s) representing the resources associated withthe RS, STEP 1908. As resources are processed, they are removed from thelist of resource data being monitored resulting in subsequent DAG(s)having fewer resources. Unsubscribing to resources is performed fromleaf nodes up the DAG(s) to root nodes, in one example. Ordering fromleaf node(s) to root maintains logical consistency for reported events.Events which reflect outages in leaf nodes may cause error processing toevaluate resources on which the leaf node depends. Removing leaf nodesremoves the possibility of actions taken on nodes nearer the root in theDAG to recover the leaf node. If an error is reported on a resourcenearer the root in the DAG, root cause analysis causes the recovery ofthe node nearer the root in the DAG to be effected and there is nooutage reported by the leaf node resources. If no resources exist in theconstructed DAG, INQUIRY 1910, the RS runtime state is set to deactivatemonitoring, STEP 1912, and processing ends. Otherwise, there areresources to be processed. Each leaf node in the formed DAG(s) isprocessed, STEP 1914, before reforming the DAG(s) to find the next levelof resources, STEP 1908.

For each resource, monitoring of events is terminated, STEP 1906.Subscriptions for events related to changes in resource state, property,operation and lifecycle are removed, STEPS 1916-1918. Property valuesubscriptions may have been in effect in support of RTO metrics,resource property data supporting pairing rules or property datasupporting evaluation of RS and RG state. The list of resource databeing monitored is updated for the unsubscribed events, STEP 1920, andthe next resource is processed, STEP 1914.

Described in detail herein is a capability for monitoring real-time dataof a business application, in which the business application includesprocessing collectively performed by a plurality of components of the ITenvironment. Each component may include one or more resources, and thereal-time data is associated with those resources. The real-time dataincludes, for instance, resource state, property/value data, operationexecution time duration and/or performance data (e.g., utilization).

One or more aspects of the present invention can be included in anarticle of manufacture (e.g., one or more computer program products)having, for instance, computer usable media. The media has therein, forinstance, computer readable program code means or logic (e.g.,instructions, code, commands, etc.) to provide and facilitate thecapabilities of the present invention. The article of manufacture can beincluded as a part of a computer system or sold separately.

One example of an article of manufacture or a computer program productincorporating one or more aspects of the present invention is describedwith reference to FIG. 20. A computer program product 2000 includes, forinstance, one or more computer usable media 2002 to store computerreadable program code means or logic 2004 thereon to provide andfacilitate one or more aspects of the present invention. The medium canbe an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, orsemiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or a propagation medium.Examples of a computer readable medium include a semiconductor or solidstate memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a randomaccess memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk andan optical disk. Examples of optical disks include compact disk-readonly memory (CD-ROM), compact disk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD.

A sequence of program instructions or a logical assembly of one or moreinterrelated modules defined by one or more computer readable programcode means or logic direct the performance of one or more aspects of thepresent invention.

Advantageously, a capability is provided for facilitating management ofan IT environment by monitoring real-time data of that environment andusing that data in the management. This provides up-to-date informationto be used in management decisions, such as in recovery that can beperformed manually, in response to the customer receiving the colletedinformation, or automatically by a recovery process provided by the BRsystem.

Although various embodiments are described above, these are onlyexamples. For example, the processing environments described herein areonly examples of environments that may incorporate and use one or moreaspects of the present invention. Environments may include other typesof processing units or servers or the components in each processingenvironment may be different than described herein. Each processingenvironment may include additional, less and/or different componentsthan described herein. Further, the types of central processing unitsand/or operating systems or other types of components may be differentthan described herein. Again, these are only provided as examples.

Moreover, an environment may include an emulator (e.g., software orother emulation mechanisms), in which a particular architecture orsubset thereof is emulated. In such an environment, one or moreemulation functions of the emulator can implement one or more aspects ofthe present invention, even though a computer executing the emulator mayhave a different architecture than the capabilities being emulated. Asone example, in emulation mode, the specific instruction or operationbeing emulated is decoded, and an appropriate emulation function isbuilt to implement the individual instruction or operation.

In an emulation environment, a host computer includes, for instance, amemory to store instructions and data; an instruction fetch unit toobtain instructions from memory and to optionally, provide localbuffering for the obtained instruction; an instruction decode unit toreceive the instruction fetched and to determine the type ofinstructions that have been fetched; and an instruction execution unitto execute the instructions. Execution may include loading data into aregister for memory; storing data back to memory from a register; orperforming some type of arithmetic or logical operation, as determinedby the decode unit. In one example, each unit is implemented insoftware. For instance, the operations being performed by the units areimplemented as one or more subroutines within emulator software.

Further, a data processing system suitable for storing and/or executingprogram code is usable that includes at least one processor coupleddirectly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. Thememory elements include, for instance, local memory employed duringactual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memorywhich provide temporary storage of at least some program code in orderto reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storageduring execution.

Input/Output or I/O devices (including, but not limited to, keyboards,displays, pointing devices, DASD, tape, CDs, DVDs, thumb drives andother memory media, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directlyor through intervening I/O controllers. Network adapters may also becoupled to the system to enable the data processing system to becomecoupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storagedevices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, cablemodems, and Ethernet cards are just a few of the available types ofnetwork adapters.

Further, although the environments described herein are related to themanagement of availability of a customer's environment, one or moreaspects of the present invention may be used to manage aspects otherthan or in addition to availability. Further, one or more aspects of thepresent invention can be used in environments other than a businessresiliency environment.

Yet further, many examples are provided herein, and these examples maybe revised without departing from the spirit of the present invention.For example, in one embodiment, the description is described in terms ofavailability and recovery; however, other goals and/or objectives may bespecified in lieu of or in addition thereto. Additionally, the resourcesmay be other than IT resources. Further, there may be references toparticular products offered by International Business MachinesCorporation or other companies. These again are only offered asexamples, and other products may also be used. Additionally, althoughtables and databases are described herein, any suitable data structuremay be used. There are many other variations that can be included in thedescription described herein and all of these variations are considereda part of the claimed invention.

Further, for completeness in describing one example of an environment inwhich one or more aspects of the present invention may be utilized,certain components and/or information is described that is not neededfor one or more aspects of the present invention. These are not meant tolimit the aspects of the present invention in any way.

As used herein, the phrase “obtaining” includes having, receiving, beingprovided, creating, defining, or forming, as examples.

One or more aspects of the present invention can be provided, offered,deployed, managed, serviced, etc. by a service provider who offersmanagement of customer environments. For instance, the service providercan create, maintain, support, etc. computer code and/or a computerinfrastructure that performs one or more aspects of the presentinvention for one or more customers. In return, the service provider canreceive payment from the customer under a subscription and/or feeagreement, as examples. Additionally or alternatively, the serviceprovider can receive payment from the sale of advertising content to oneor more third parties.

In one aspect of the present invention, an application can be deployedfor performing one or more aspects of the present invention. As oneexample, the deploying of an application comprises providing computerinfrastructure operable to perform one or more aspects of the presentinvention.

As a further aspect of the present invention, a computing infrastructurecan be deployed comprising integrating computer readable code into acomputing system, in which the code in combination with the computingsystem is capable of performing one or more aspects of the presentinvention.

As yet a further aspect of the present invention, a process forintegrating computing infrastructure, comprising integrating computerreadable code into a computer system may be provided. The computersystem comprises a computer usable medium, in which the computer usablemedium comprises one or more aspects of the present invention. The codein combination with the computer system is capable of performing one ormore aspects of the present invention.

The capabilities of one or more aspects of the present invention can beimplemented in software, firmware, hardware, or some combinationthereof. At least one program storage device readable by a machineembodying at least one program of instructions executable by the machineto perform the capabilities of the present invention can be provided.

The flow diagrams depicted herein are just examples. There may be manyvariations to these diagrams or the steps (or operations) describedtherein without departing from the spirit of the invention. Forinstance, the steps may be performed in a differing order, or steps maybe added, deleted, or modified. All of these variations are considered apart of the claimed invention.

Although embodiments have been depicted and described in detail herein,it will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant art that variousmodifications, additions, substitutions and the like can be made withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention and these are thereforeconsidered to be within the scope of the invention as defined in thefollowing claims.

1. A computer-implemented method of facilitating management of anInformation Technology (IT) environment, said computer-implementedmethod comprising: obtaining a definition of a business application thatis to be monitored, said business application comprising processingcollectively performed by a plurality of resources of the ITenvironment; and monitoring real-time data associated with one or moreresources of the business application to provide information to be usedin managing the IT environment.
 2. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein the one or more resources comprises at least one of acomputer system, an operating system, a database, a transaction monitor,a storage facility, a network connection, an application container, anapplication, vendor provided hardware or vendor provided software. 3.The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the businessapplication is programmatically represented by a Recovery Segment. 4.The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the real-time datacomprises resource data.
 5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4,wherein the resource data comprises at least one of state data,property/value data, operation execution time duration for one or moreoperations on a resource or performance data.
 6. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising maintainingrunning statistics on operation execution time duration.
 7. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring comprisesperiodic gathering of the real-time data.
 8. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 7, wherein the periodic gathering comprises updating acache with at least a portion of the real-time data.
 9. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the periodic gatheringis commenced in response to notification of a change associated with thebusiness application.
 10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7,wherein the periodic gathering is commenced in response to initiation ofa periodic poll.
 11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, whereinthe monitoring reflects a dynamic change in topology of the businessapplication.
 12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, whereinthe dynamic change in topology comprises at least one of adding aresource to the business application, deleting a resource from thebusiness application, adding a resource relationship to the businessapplication or deleting a resource relationship from the businessapplication.
 13. A system of facilitating management of an InformationTechnology (IT) environment, said system comprising: a memory having adefinition of a business application to be monitored, said businessapplication comprising processing collectively performed by a pluralityof resources of the IT environment; and at least one processor tomonitor real-time data associated with one or more resources of thebusiness application to provide information to be used in managing theIT environment.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the real-time datacomprises resource data.
 15. The system of claim 13, wherein themonitoring comprises periodic gathering of the real-time data.
 16. Anarticle of manufacture comprising: at least one computer usable mediumhaving computer readable program code logic to facilitate management ofan Information Technology (IT) environment, said computer readableprogram code logic when executing performing the following: obtaining adefinition of a business application that is to be monitored, saidbusiness application comprising processing collectively performed by aplurality of resources of the IT environment; and monitoring real-timedata associated with one or more resources of the business applicationto provide information to be used in managing the IT environment. 17.The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the real-time datacomprises resource data.
 18. The article of manufacture of claim 16,wherein the monitoring comprises periodic gathering of the real-timedata.
 19. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the monitoringreflects a dynamic change in topology of the business application. 20.The article of manufacture of claim 19, wherein the dynamic change intopology comprises at least one of adding a resource to the businessapplication, deleting a resource from the business application, adding aresource relationship to the business application or deleting a resourcerelationship from the business application.